IN THIS UPDATE:

 

Anouncements

  Eclipse Mailbag

 

Dear Friends, 

 

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question last time, about the unexpected upsurge of sales of our  Signs & Seasons curriculum.  A number of readers wrote back to mention that S&S had been recently added to the free curriculum listed at Ambleside Online, a Charlotte Mason organization.  I had previously heard about the listing at AO, but was (and remain) nevertheless incredulous that simply having a listing in a long list of curriculum could result in our second greatest month in the history of our poky little home business.  But so many moms have been emphatic on that point, so I stand corrected!  Thanks very much to AO and to the Charlotte Mason community for your support! 

 

My wife Debbie has a multi-volume set of the writings of Charlotte Mason, and here's what Miss Mason herself had to say on the subject of astronomy, from a section on science of a volume entitled "A Philosophy of Education":
 

"How would you find the Pole Star?  Mention six other stars and say in what constellations they occur."... Questions like these, it will be seen, cover a good deal of field work and the study of some half dozen carefully selected books on natural history, botany, architecture and astronomy, the principles being that children shall observe and chronicle, but shall not depend on their own unassisted observation.

 
This is exactly the sort of thing that I had in mind when I created Signs & Seasons and the workbook, and these books were intended to instill that sort of approach to science.  In fact, Signs & Seasons represents a culmination of several other selected books from astronomy, including primary sources from ancient Greece and Rome, through medieval and modern writings, to save the student from doing all the "heavy lifting" that I had to do in culling and distilling this approach to astronomy into a single volume.  I hope that CM homeschool families and others will continue to use S&S to help their children learn about the important but neglected field of astronomy. 

* * * * *

An a personal note, I'd just like to remind everyone that we're just another homeschool family, just like yours.  I often hear from moms, addressing me as if I were some kind of a big-wheel homeschool publisher, explaining their family's struggles in homeschooling their children, as though we cannot relate and need to be clued in to what it's really like for homeschool families.

 

Once upon a time, when we were starting to homeschool, there were still a great number of "mom and pop" homeschool publishers.  In recent years, a "corporate" culture has crept into the homeschool market, such as the convention vendors with their slick booths and snappy presentation graphics.  There might be a temptation to think that every homeschool publisher is also some sort of corporation.

 

I'd like to say again that we are just a small family publisher, and not some huge mega-publisher like some folks seem to think. I have an unrelated full-time "day job" and do Classical Astronomy in my spare time (whenever that is!)  

 

We have always sold only a couple hundred copies of S&S a year, rather than tens of thousands of copies like the big-name publishers you might be thinking of. We do not have a paid staff, nor do we have money for advertising or a convention presence, like the "real" homeschool publishers.  Nearly all our profits go back into the business, to cover operating costs.  Though our costs are always going up, we have maintained our unit prices and shipping rates at the same level since we started selling S&S in 2007.
     

So thanks to everyone for understanding that our family is just like yours, and we can totally relate to your struggles as a working-class homeschool family.  Thanks also for your ongoing support of our efforts. 

 

* * * * *

 

 For more information about topics from Classical Astronomy discussed in this newsletter,

please check out Signs & Seasons, a

homeschool astronomy curriculum

(but popular with adult readers too!)

  

 

Visit our archive of previous editions of the Classical Astronomy Update newsletters, going back to 2007.

 

 If you haven't already done so, find us on Facebook and follow @JayRyanAstro on Twitter. 

 

Visit this page to subscribe to the Classical Astronomy Update and the Northeast Ohio Astronomy (NEOastro) newsletters.   

  

* * * * *

 

Announcements

  

Eclipse Mailbag
 

We had a beautiful view of last week's lunar eclipse.  The Earth's shadow (umbra) was sharp, and cast a distinct edge on the lunar surface. I've often seen eclipses where the edge is "fuzzy," and it's hard to tell where the umbra begins and ends. Also, this eclipse looked very dark and smoky, and only had a whiff of reddish color (hardly a "blood" Moon).  However, many of the pictures I've seen have shown a lot of red color, perhaps due to time exposures.

 

Sometimes you'll see lunar eclipses that are very bright, orange-ish white, and hardly even look like a proper eclipse. I'm construing the color of this eclipse to indicate a very clean, clear state of the Earth's atmosphere, with not as much dirt as other times, that would cause considerable scattering of sunlight onto the darkened Moon. I'm guess that there has not been as much volcanic activity lately as during other eclipse times, since volcanoes deposit lots of dirt high into the sky.

THANK YOU to everyone who went out and looked, and to everyone how shared a report. Thanks especially to everyone who shared photos of this eclipse, as follows....

 

 

Here's a series from Tom Siu in Ohio.  Tom and his family have come several times to our constellation tours at Observatory Park, near Chardon, OH.  We really appreciate their support and participation!

 

 

The one below is also from Tom, showing the eclipsed Moon "in context," up in the sky, through the trees.

Here's a series from Stan Reinke, who has contributed to our "Eclipse Mailbag" in the past.  Thanks Stan!  This first one shows the Moon at 6:10 AM CDT, during totality.

 

 

 

This one from Stan is at  6:22 AM, and is a longer exposure, appearing brighter.

 

 

Another from Stan at 6:56 AM, showing the "egress" of the Moon from the Earth's shadow.

 

 

And finally, this pic from 7:12 AM, showing a later stage of egress.

 

 

Here's a spooky pic from Becky in Maryland, which she posted on our Facebook page.

 

 

This is very neat couple of phone snaps, from our friends the Scherer family in Northfield, OH.  They snapped a pic of the eclipse in Ohio, USA at the same time as their son, who was in Melbourne, Australia. Though the phone snaps are not great as photographs go, you can see how the Moon appears "upside down" in the southern hemisphere, opposite as compared to the view in the northern hemisphere. It's so cool that this family was able to capture this and share with us!

 

 

Here's a beautiful sequence from Jean Napp, a homeschool mom and  amateur astronomer.  Jean has been a regular for a dozen or more years at the "Well Trained Mind" homeschool forums, posting as "Jean in Wisc."  Wow, nice pics, Jean!  

 

 

The last pic in the above series shows selenelion, where the eclipsed Moon is visible in a blue sky while the Sun is also above the horizon.  This is an interesting phenomenon, since it proves that the atmosphere refracts the image of the Moon, so that it appears above the horizon, sharing the sky with the Sun, after the Moon should theoretically have set.  This concept was understood since ancient times, as explained in 200 BC by the ancient Greek writer, Cleomedes....

 

Lunar eclipses are such as we have demonstrated. But statements made about paradoxical eclipses seem to contradict the theory that establishes that the Moon is eclipsed by falling into the shadow of the Earth. For some say that a lunar eclipse occurs even when both luminaries are observed above the horizon.... Since there are by nature a wide variety of conditions that affect the air, it would not be impossible for us to encounter an image of the Sun as not yet having set after it had already set (that is, after it was below the horizon)....  But the ray that flows out from the eyes could also be refracted on encountering air that is damp and moist, and encounter the Sun after it is already concealed below the horizon... 

Something similar could, then, occur with damp and sodden air too, so that when the ray from the eye is refracted and bends below the horizon, it encounters a Sun that has already set, so that an image of it is engendered as still being above the horizon. Perhaps something else much like this could also on occasion produce an image in us of the two bodies being above the horizon after the Sun has already set. Still, that the Moon is eclipsed only by falling into the shadow of the Earth is a cognitively reliable derived from the phenomena.

Also from Jean in Wisc, is a very interesting shot of the eclipsed Moon in conjunction with the distant planet Uranus, the greenish-blue speck off to the left.   

 

 

Here's another sequence posted at our Facebook page by Marylou-Who in Virginia.  She did not reply as to whether this pic was taken by her or by a friend, but it's a very nice series nonetheless.

 

 

I am SO GLAD that I got up at 5:20AM to take in the show! Also, my wife Debbie was very enthused, and drew several sketches. Four out of our five kids went out to take a look, and that is also uncommon. We get clear weather here in Ohio for about one lunar eclipse out of three, and this is the last really good eclipse that I can remember here in at least five years. Thank the LORD for the blessing of clear skies! I feel bad for anyone who stayed in bed! As with anything in life, worthwhile things require the will and discipline to push through mere discomfort. I limped along that day with four hours sleep, but grateful for having seen one of God's wonders.

In other reports, Orion was beautiful that morning, high in the sky at the meridian compared to the westering eclipse. Also, Jupiter was prominently high in the southeast, a fair distance away from Orion. We'll be seeing more of Orion and Jupiter in the evenings skies as the fall progresses into winter.  

 

Til next time, God bless and clear skies,