Full Moons & Astrowolves?
Luky always gets a little extra alert and philosophical during the full Moon. That was Sunday the 18th. The Atlanta sky has been clear - nearly cloudless - ever since before Katrina so we enjoyed, as it were, the whole full Moon. Saturday evening, just after dark, Luky and I took a short breather outside and saw the Moon rising over a neighborhood church steeple. It was orange in color.
Luky turned poetic on me and started describing it . . . "like a golden-orange doubloon wrested from the depths, with its face flushed working to relearn the breathing process, lying on the deck of a pirate galleon with that steeple-mast pointing in a new direction - opposite that former, gurgling grave."
I told him he was sounding wolfish! He starts breathing heavy and looking around as if he'd caught the scent of hoofed prey - like he might even know what that smelled like!?!
And then, on top of that, NASA just announced its new vision including a return to the Moon, Mars and other "lofty" goals. So Luky is panting this morning and all about letting the world know he's ready to suit up and get into the astronaut training program.
I was wondering about that orange Moon. Luky says a fellow Moon-sensitive associate of his has a website (http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/) that includes a description of it and features some of his (Keith Cooley) pictures. Keith's description is this:
"Have you ever wondered why the moon is more orange or yellow in color when it first rises at night. This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.
The moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see." (http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonorange/)
Anyway, this mood is beginning to pass. The Moon had a bit of its edge rubbed flat this morning. It's very slight and had there been any clouds you might not notice at all, but at least Luky is starting to calm down. He is still surfing the NASA websites and (apparently) filling out applications, but as far as I know they stopped designing quadrupedal spacesuits years ago.
Luky turned poetic on me and started describing it . . . "like a golden-orange doubloon wrested from the depths, with its face flushed working to relearn the breathing process, lying on the deck of a pirate galleon with that steeple-mast pointing in a new direction - opposite that former, gurgling grave."
I told him he was sounding wolfish! He starts breathing heavy and looking around as if he'd caught the scent of hoofed prey - like he might even know what that smelled like!?!
And then, on top of that, NASA just announced its new vision including a return to the Moon, Mars and other "lofty" goals. So Luky is panting this morning and all about letting the world know he's ready to suit up and get into the astronaut training program.
I was wondering about that orange Moon. Luky says a fellow Moon-sensitive associate of his has a website (http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/) that includes a description of it and features some of his (Keith Cooley) pictures. Keith's description is this:
"Have you ever wondered why the moon is more orange or yellow in color when it first rises at night. This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth. The reason for the orange color is due to the scattering of light by the atmosphere. When the moon is near the horizon, the moonlight must pass through much more atmosphere than when the moon is directly overhead. By the time the moonlight reaches your eyes, the blue, green, and purple pieces of visible light have been scattered away by air molecules. That's why you only see yellow, orange, or red.
The moon can have an orange color at any time of the year. Sometimes the moon appears orange even when it's directly overhead. This occurs when there's a lot of dust, smoke, or pollution in the atmosphere. The size of those particles will determine the type of color you will see." (http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonorange/)
Anyway, this mood is beginning to pass. The Moon had a bit of its edge rubbed flat this morning. It's very slight and had there been any clouds you might not notice at all, but at least Luky is starting to calm down. He is still surfing the NASA websites and (apparently) filling out applications, but as far as I know they stopped designing quadrupedal spacesuits years ago.
posted by RAM at 7:52 AM
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