A Line of Planets Tonight

It was cloudy in Paradelle last night and again tonight. Too bad, because this was a good time to see the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars lining up.

This is true wherever you are in the world, so I hope for you it is a clear and dark night sky. the moon and Venus will appear close together in the night sky on 24 March.

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Look west just after the sun has set and the two bright objects you see are Jupiter and Venus. Jupiter is below and closer to the horizon and will be setting shortly after sunset. Venus will be brighter and higher in the sky. Look above Venus and you will see the crescent moon. They will both be sitting in between the constellations of Pisces and Taurus.

If you have binoculars or a small telescope, you can point them at Jupiter to look for three of its four largest moons, called the Galilean moons. Callisto will be too close to the planet to see, but you might be able to make out Europa, Io, and Ganymede, which will appear extending in a line in this order.

Moon Supersitions

From the 1865 edition of The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities, here are some Moon superstitions that were once popular beliefs.

Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

• It is unlucky to kill a pig in the wane of the Moon, or the pork will waste in boiling.
• It is unlucky to see the New Moon for the first time through glass – such as a window or telescope. But what about my eyeglasses?
• A Saturday moon, If it comes once in seven years, Comes once too soon.
  So, if the new moon is on a Saturday, the weather will likely be bad for the ensuing month.
• To see “the old moon in the arms of the new one” is a reckoned sign of fine weather. The sliver of a New Moon does sometimes appear to be hugging the rest of the Moon which looks a bit older.
• More fine weather comes with the turning up of  “the horns of the new moon.”  In this position, it is supposed to retain the water that is imagined to be on the Moon, which would run out and fall to Earth as rain if the horns were turned down.

Red Sun, Red Moon

Amateur astronomer and astrophotographer Bill Funcheon captured this photo of the red Moon over New Jersey on July 20, 2021. Image via space.com

Americans all across the country have been noticing (and posting photos) the strange colors in both the daytime and nighttime skies.

The Sun and the Moon have been a stronger orange or even blood red. Skies have been a hazy gray. I associate the latter with hot, humid weather and air pollution. grayed with haze.

The sky, Sun, and Moon can appear to have different colors for several reasons – mostly atmospheric. The current redness is caused by the ongoing wildfires on the West Coast. The Bootleg wildfire in Oregon is the biggest contributor this week

Here in Paradelle, thousands of miles from that fire, smoke from this extreme wildfire has arrived. The fire began on July 6. It has already burned 364,000 acres. The jetstream carries it eastward and the Northeast has seen it. Sometimes, I imagine I can smell it, though it might be something more local as the smoke is high in the atmosphere by now.

Image via Flickr

The red Sun is caused by smoke particles filling the atmosphere. The longer wavelengths of light appear red and scatter more due to the particles in the air. Seen through clean air molecules, shorter wavelengths of light, which appear to us as blue light, are more effectively scattered.

The Moon and Sleep

Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay

A new study found people get less rest in the days leading up to a full moon. have you noticed that yourself?

Researchers looked at the sleep patterns of hundreds of people over a lunar cycle and what they found was that people had later bedtimes and got the least amount of sleep during the three to five days before a full moon.

I’m monitoring my sleep every night anyway, so I’m going to look at my sleep from last night through the Full Moon on Saturday.

If my sleep or sleep matches those in the sleep study, it will take about 30 minutes longer to fall asleep. You may also find that you slept for about 50 minutes less than usual.

As of now, we don’t know the reason behind the trend. Does it sound like some old Moon lore? Modern studies have shown that menstrual cycles seem to temporarily synchronize with moon cycles.

Throughout history, we have made connections from the changing faces of the moon to our lives though some lore about the moon’s phases, such as a Full Moon inciting werewolves, is easy to dismiss.

More about the newest study at “It’s not just the pandemic. The moon may be messing with your sleep, too” What’s different about this study is that it wasn’t done in sleep labs but in real life. To track sleep, participants were outfitted with wrist monitors not so different from the one I wear on my wrist day and night.

Let’s see what I find this week before the Full Moon.

Earth Had a New Moon

I’m not writing here about the monthly New Moon phase that will appear this Sunday. I’m talking about a news item that didn’t get a lot of attention.

It seems that Earth acquired a second “mini-moon.” It’s not very big – about the size of a small car. Astronomers spotted it circling our planet back in February.

Researchers Kacper Wierzchos and Teddy Pruyne at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. They say that Earth has “temporarily captured” this object which is a “possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3,” and likely to be a C-type asteroid.

Any Near-Earth Object (NEO) that follows an Earth-like orbit may eventually be captured by Earth’s gravity during low-velocity encounters. This is just the second asteroid known to orbit Earth (2006 RH120 was first). Its route suggests it entered Earth’s orbit three years ago.

Okay, it doesn’t look so impressive in this International Gemini Observatory image. This is 2020 CD3.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Minor Planet Center collects data on minor planets and asteroids says it is likely an asteroid captured by Earth’s gravity.

Our “new moon” is not in a stable orbit around us and so it didn’t stay long enough to get really established in our imagination. I don’t imagine there will be many poems written about it. (What rhymes smoothly with 2020 CD3?) It orbited Earth like a tiny natural satellite. It seems like Asteroid 2020 CD3 has now gone back into orbit around the sun, so it is tailing us on our annual journey around the Sun after about a year of travel around Earth.

Farewell, 2020 CD3. Have a good journey.

International Observe the Moon Night

Tonight – October 5 – is the 10th annual International Observe the Moon Night. One day each year, everyone on Earth is invited to observe and learn about the Moon together, and to celebrate the cultural and personal connections we all have with our nearest celestial neighbor.

This year is particularly special as it marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. NASA is also looking forward to their Artemis program, which will send the first woman and the next man to the Moon.

An important part of observing the Moon is to see how it changes over time. Readers of this blog know I pay a lot of attention to the Moon and its phases.  NASA even offers a Moon journal that you can watch the shape of the Moon changing over the course of a month, and keep track of where and what time it rises and sets.

If you choose to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night, you can register your participation and share your experiences on social media with #ObserveTheMoon or on NASA’s Facebook page.