The moon is going away!

AHA! so the earth IS round!

bloody hell, I live in the frickin' desert, and it's fucking raining right now.

go figure.

It's a spectacular night here in Ottawa. Clear, cold and windless. Very pretty eclipse underway with Saturn nearby. Mars high in the southern sky above Orion. The Pleiades as stunning a binocular target as ever. The neighbours must think we're nuts but I don't care.

βPer

Cool! PZ, we had a complete eclipse of the moon last year (PNW coast) and it was awesome - I kept waking up to look at the moon - wierdest was during the end when the moon was blood-orange. We should get a partial of what you are seeing tonight too, with the orange. ENJOY!

We're lucky too PZ. We can see it right out our window. While it isn't 'as cold' here in SE MN as it is in Morris, it's cold enough!

We live in Bloomington and have pretty heavy tree coverage and cannot see the eclipse too well (and it's too freakin' cold outside to climb to higher ground!)... Any chance you'd snap a photo and post it here? That'd be very nice of you.

We all just have to trust that it's God's will to rid us of that cursed moon.

I'll be waiting for all the reports on the web about UFOs tomorrow.

goddamn clouds.

The clouds moved in as the eclipse began. There was a small bite missing from the moon when it finally disappeared completely behind a thick layer of clouds. I packed up my camera and went sadly back indoors. Oh, well, at least it's 70°F out there even if I can't see the moon.

No windows for me, so I'm back and forth trying to keep warm and keep track of it.

I am trying to take some pictures on my mediocre digital camera, so I'll see if I can get them up somewhere for people to look at.

grrrrrr! my comment disappeared.

and all i wanted to say was: don't cry, pz... it'll come back.

Well that was cool. OK, too obvious I know.

Bastards! I have to tromp out on my back porch in 10 degree weather to see it, so I keep darting in and out every few minutes and spreading snow across the floor.

Well we're getting rained on in the caribbean so my glorious timelapse photography plan has been shelved and I'm getting periodic but spectacular glimpses at the eclipse. on the upside tomorrow morning I'll wake up to blue sky over caribbean beaches as opposed to cold minesota.

Doesn't prove the Earth is a sphere! It could just as well be a flat disk!

Levi- why do you think I said "round"? ;)

Help, I see to have misplaced my moon!

Beautifully clear, cold night here in Toronto. There'd be so many stars if there wasn't so much light pollution here :(

I got some shots up to about 45 into it and then the clouds rolled in.

It's really a spectacular view from here in MD. I hope people are getting good photos, I have no camera =(

Does anyone know if there is an East coast telescope on the web so I don't have to go out and freeze?

LUCKY!

It's all cloudy here in San Diego.

Mopes.

Thanks for reminding me!

I threw on the the heavy coat, the cap and stood in the parking lot of my apartment building. Even with all the light pollution of Minneapolis, it is still spectacular.

The only sad part, I saw a lot of people walking around without looking up. I hope some of them take a few moments to look up and take in a beautiful astronomical event.

What god should I worship to bring it back?

Me, of course.

Very cool, but my camera is no longer of even passable quality and as such my pics are beyond blurry.

PZ asked "Who should I sacrifice?"

Well, if you were an IDer you could sacrifice your integrity; that's not a "who" I suppose but still...

The Expelled producers et al? No, that'd make them martyrs - well moreso than they claim to be now.

A cuttlefish? (not, not *the* most excellent Cuttlefish)

Maybe a cephalopod? With fava beans? And a nice Chianti?

My mom asked me, "Okay Mr. Science Guy, what's making the moon red?" I responded with dead seriousness: "I'd guess 'evil spirit' but I might be wrong."

The moon is gone? Damned Navy, they mixed up the satellites they were shooting at.

Me, of course.

hey! that's great news.

congratulations on your promotion to the Pantheon.

Is that the reason for the celebration in Boston?

Mmmm... it's a crystal clear, seasonably cold, and absolutely beautiful evening here in The People's Republic. Wow! All ur moon are look like an dirty opal! Nice.

There is a dragon in the sky over Dayton, Ohio. At this moment (pause to look) it has eaten all but the far western limb of the moon. Oh, my word. I can only pray that the spirits are again with us and the dreadful lizard will sicken and puke and return our beloved satellite really, really soon.

I'll continue to monitor the situation. Stand by.

(Sicken and puke? On the moon? The cheesy, green moon? (No it's red!))

Red? It is but a dirty peachy orange here in the northeast. Obviously we haven't made the gods as mad as you all have. I daresay I'll be able to get away with sacrificing a bucket of KFC and a few biscuits to appease the spirits.

I am so jealous! I can't see the moon at all in my own apartment, I saw a bit of it when I went down the hall. It looked pretty cool, but I sure didn't see it go red! I am jealous. Especially of you BPer. I am also in Ottawa and I think you're getting a much better show than I am!

Man I want a telescope. Where do you buy these sorts of things?

congratulations on your promotion to the Pantheon.
Is that the reason for the celebration in Boston?

Thanks! Praise be to Me!

Nah, we just needed an excuse to get together and eat some ocean dwellers.

In teh beginningz, Ceiling Cat maded teh heavenz and teh urfs, but he did not eated dem.

Tonite, Ceiling Cat maded you teh Fool Moons, but he eated it. Srsly.

#31 Crudely Wrott,

Nope, he'll shit it out, like he always does. The dragon doesn't have a digestive system capable of handling a body like the Moon, so it passes through undigested. I think he swallows the Moon in order to clear his digestive tract of parasites, which we then see as UFOs.

Nope, he'll shit it out, like he always does. The dragon doesn't have a digestive system capable of handling a body like the Moon, so it passes through undigested. I think he swallows the Moon in order to clear his digestive tract of parasites, which we then see as UFOs.

Cosmic Civet Coffee!

I don't know what my problem is, but I'm just not that interested in the eclipse. I went out and looked at it and kind of said "Huh" and walked back inside.

I've always been like this. I feel like, if I can see a picture of something, I need not see it in person. When I visited the Grand Canyon and Niagra Falls, my reaction was basically "Yep, it looks like the pictures. Guess those photographers weren't lying. Let's go home."

I wonder if this is a side effect of a childhood spent playing video games? Something to think about. If you're raised with things like that, maybe you naturally lose interest in nature and phenomena that used to elicit awe and wonder in people who grew up without such things?

What do you think?

Loss of a sense of awe? Bummer!

That great, beaded bastard must be nearly satisfied by now! Only a thin silver sliver of Luna can be seen! Surely too much for even a space-browsing lizard to stomach, I'll wager. But the end is not yet in sight though our hearts and souls scream and demand the return of our rightful, nightful light.

What's this? The poor remnant of the western limb now seems to grow brighter, to flare up in answer to the red malignancy that advances on the last remnant of lover's hopes and mariner's guide. The least last bit of Luna seems to find a hidden resource against the reptilian apatite that appears to be almost triumphant! Huzzah! and Hooray! Surely it is the sweet smell of the sacrifice of puppies and budgies by true believers world wide that is staving off the certain demise of our beloved lantern of troth and direction!

I remain on post, witness to the spectacle, committed to relaying the latest of Luna's desperate attempt to escape from this underworld mastication. Please, stand by!

We were able to see the moon perfectly--it was a completely cloudless sky, so my family went outside and we watched the last bit of the moon disappear in the eclipse. And as we were craning our heads back, staring up, we all saw a shooting star flash across the sky by the moon. It was awesome.

It looks like whoever PZ sacrificed appeased the gods, for the moon has begun to be restored. Good work!

Alan Kellogg, you have been sorely and miserably misled. This is the real real Dragon Who Eats The Moon. According to the myths that date back to the misty times before I left grade school and these myths being backed by the testimony of children everywhere, It Has No Asshole And Cannot Shit. This of course renders him full of It!

It looks like whoever PZ sacrificed appeased the gods, for the moon has begun to be restored. Good work!

You're welcome!

The moon is oh so fine, but it's just so easy to move the telescope over just a bit and behold that bering-ed ball of gasses that is Saturn! We too can enjoy it all from the bedroom window tonight!! (Rural Southern Illinois)

There's a bad moon on the rise...

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/creedence+clearwater+revival/bad+moon+risi…

*sigh* still raining here in the desert.

oh, did i mention we've had all of a total of an inch of rain over the last 3 years?

I took a picture that looks just like that! Only, well, blurrier.

October Mermaid,

Don't know what to say, except I hope you find your sense of wonder again. Real life is crazy more strange than video games usually.

What I really want to know is, what the hell is that giant rabbit doing on the moon, anyway?

Hey, I just burned a Slim-Jim on a tiny alter and the moon is coming back!

If you're raised with things like that, maybe you naturally lose interest in nature and phenomena that used to elicit awe and wonder in people who grew up without such things?

I played a lot of videogames as a kid, and also went on a lot of vacations where we saw things like the Grand Canyon. At first, I kinda felt how you described it... "Welp, there it is... let's go home now so I can play gameboy." But I've... learned? Taught myself? to appreciate them more. I was pretty excited about the eclipse tonight, to the point of freaking out some of my friends.

Spectacular here in South West British Columbia. The last few minutes and the next few are somewhat mimicking the appearance of the moon over its 14 days cycle from new moon to full moon - NICE. (it's 20:30 PST and half the shadow edge is half way across.

LisaJ @#33,

I can't see the eclipse from inside either - I live in a ranch-style bungalow with big eaves. I just pop out to the front step from time to time.

As for a telescope, it isn't necessary for a lunar eclipse. We're using a small pair of binoculars to get a closer look. If you're interested in astronomy, I'd recommend checking out the RASC Ottawa Centre (Google it for more). There you will get a chance to meet others who can fill you in on what to look for in equipment, books, software, etc. Most importantly, do NOT buy a telescope before talking to us.

Funny incident just now - my wife and I were on the driveway looking at the eclipse and she said "that star to the left of the Moon - it has rings around it". The 'star', of course, is Saturn. I stood there stunned and agape, not sure if she was pulling my leg or if she had revealed that she has absolutely the best vision ever. Turns out, she thought it was hazy. Darn - it'd be handy having someone with super vision to aim my scope for me.

... thanks Jeff!

I was just about to write here and make a request of you to clear out the bad weather long enough for me to catch the eclipse, and you must have already read my mind and fixed it.

there is now a hole in the clouds exactly large enough and in just the right spot for me to catch the tail end of the eclipse.

add another worshipper to your list.

how many do you have to get the free gift package?

Just a moment ago it was but the faintest of hopes, the least of dreams dreampt in the last moment of sleep. A forlorn imagining of a brighter future seemingly lost in the endless, and exitless, gut of the dragon whose hunger knows a certain large threshold of satiation. Behold! She strengthens! She squirms and wiggles to escape the predacious peristalsis of the Demon Dragon intent on eating out the heart of out hopes!

A furtive glance shows Luna, now nearly eclipsed as well by the ridge line of the house, slipping the surly teeth of the scaly one. She shimmers, she shimmies, she shines now just a bit brighter and her heroic glow casts a pale light on the ascending smoke of untold sacrifices offered to her all over this lower orb. The dragon slacks his merciless swallowing. Choked by the smoke he hesitates and in that moment is defeated. He can take no more of her iridescent radiance. Overpowered by the pale light of her countenance he hics, he cups, he belches and now, wait, waaaiit, wait and now I can see that . . . the entire business has gone over the roof and out of sight.

Somebody let me know how it comes out. I'm in my skivvies and don't intend to go outside to look. It's not that I don't have faith, its just that it's two degrees out there now and I want to finish this beer and open another in a minute and just stay in here where it is warm.

Thank you, Mr. Wrott, for your dramatic and detailed explanation! Here I was, thinking it was just a shadow or sumpthin!

almost free now from my vantage point; just a sliver of shadow left.

Here's a nice composite image from an eclipse in 2003:

http://www.novac.com/photos/images/delvin.jpg

Oh, and for those wondering why it's red/orange ... at total eclipse the Moon is entirely in the Earth's shadow and the Moon is illuminated solely from the light from sunrises and sunsets all over the Earth.

#'s 48 and 51

Thanks, I hope I can too! It's comforting to hear that you can teach yourself to feel this way, though. I'm definitely going to make an effort. I was looking at the eclipse and trying to figure out what way I should look at it, to see it the way others see it. I know I'm missing out, I just can't figure out how.

But one thing that kind of helped me a few minutes ago was to imagine seeing it the way our very, very distant ancestors must have saw it, not knowing it was coming or what was happening. It must have been frightening and yet wonderful! You know, something new that, for all they knew, had never happened before. Anything could happen.

Thinking of it like that actually does make me kind of appreciate it more.

Anyway, enough of my babbling. Sorry about that!

Here in PA, it's cold. It's pretty, but it's cold. Boo.

I also grew up in San Diego, where it's always sunny and at least above actual freezing during eclipses (except apparantly this one), so I got the childlike wonder out of my system as a child and now just think "hey! Morrowind has a giant red moon, too! And my computer chair is in a place of warmth!" And then I go inside.

I watched the eclipse with my parents as we all froze our asses off. It's a bit of a family tradition, we try to watch every eclipse visible where we live together, starting back when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I think I came close to frost bite this time though, winter in Maine is not the ideal time to be standing outside for very long.

It was beautiful though, the sky was really clear so all the stars were out brilliantly too. I'm lucky enough to live in a relatively isolated area so light pollution doesn't obscure the sky. The moon turned a lovely shade of dusky orange.

The hills related to the Hayward fault obstructed my view of totality, but I got out in time to see a partial eclipse.

Falyne, regarding San Diego, are you pro-Roberto's or anti-Roberto's?

We couldn't see the eclipse here in Australia.

What to do? Fire up Stellarium!

Okay, so you're not really looking at the eclipse. But you can pretend to watch it while making time go forward and backward, speed it up, zoom in, and all as many times as you want.

I was on the phone to my sister in the USA, explaining that the star just above the moon was Regulus in the constellation of Leo. And the other one to the left? Saturn. She was impressed.

Didn't we south hemispherians get one of our own quite a few months back? I recall a red moon but I was not informed prior to it happening. I should pay more attention to this stuff. :)

Hi from donwtown Los Angeles,
Was excited throughout the day.Just 8:07 PZT(PZ time),
saw Luna kissing the buildings to the east,partly eaten up.
The sky cleared about 10 mins before.
Just before totality, a couple of(fortunately) thin clouds
obscured the moon and Saturn.;but cleared up after a few minutes to reveal a dark copper-red ghost.
Minutes after totality ended, cirrus scud ate up the sky, and Luna revealed Herself slowly and veiled in cirrus.
It was a wondeful lunar eclipse,my 3rd total in a row.It was touch and go till just before moonrise.
My condolences to the guys in San Diego and elsewhere.

It was basically impossible for me to see here in the Bay Area.

I was looking at the eclipse and trying to figure out what way I should look at it, to see it the way others see it. I know I'm missing out, I just can't figure out how.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Lunar eclipses are nice, but I can't bring myself to see them as very dramatic either. (however, you could claim that's sour grapes, since I missed the one from today...) Often I get more "awed" by something small (like life through a microscope) than something big, you could try that...

But one thing that kind of helped me a few minutes ago was to imagine seeing it the way our very, very distant ancestors must have saw it, not knowing it was coming or what was happening. It must have been frightening and yet wonderful!

But imagine how they would have felt about video games! :)

RPenner: I've been at college in central PA for the past five years (getmeoutgetmeoutgetmeout... ahem), so I a.) have been unaware of the controversy and b.) would gladly, gladly, gladly accept anything better than Taco Bell.

Allllllmost done. Alllllllmost gone.

Not a great camera, my tripod was the armrest of a chair, and getting a good exposure time was tough, but here's what I got.

Hey, it loks just like a really big orange. Maybe we're related to it.

@ #60, October Mermaid,

Dear girl, you said, "But one thing that kind of helped me a few minutes ago was to imagine seeing it the way our very, very distant ancestors must have saw it, not knowing it was coming or what was happening. It must have been frightening and yet wonderful!"

That is part of the point that many of us try so hard to articulate. You have actually phrased it quite well. You can see that we continue to learn and give order to the world about us. You have done so all your life as have we all. It is practically impossible to live a single day without making a connection, figuring out a riddle, solving a vexatious problem. Within such gainful employ is a certain amount of mirth. Where do you think jokes come from?

However heavy the demands and necessities of life and "trying to figure it all out" lie on one, there is a hidden (not well hidden, more like a child hiding her face and saying, "You can't see me.") confluence of understanding and mystery in our existence. Sometimes something as mundane as being able to know when the next eclipse will happen can serve as a sense of propriety, or ownership of things that happen beyond day to day awareness. To some, to me, for instance, this is a source of satisfaction, like solving a puzzle. It brings a satisfaction that is like a river running deep and swift but smooth on the surface, giving no clue to the things below. In this way each life is like a mirror of a larger mystery and they contain not only an end of one question but the birth of many more.

I sense that you are jaded, a bit tired. I understand. It is no badge of failure; it is an emblem of progress toward knowing enough about the way that things work that one need not be confused or lost. Imagine that there was once one person who, long ago, was the first one who figured out how to make a needle with a hole opposite the sharp end and how to use it to pull a thread. Tailor to the world, she was.

I would recommend the companion book to a PBS series called "Connections" that shows how the accumulation of knowledge is not a steady march but is more like an improvisation based on previous themes that may have been widely separated in time. Like dance. One move, one theme builds on others and provides inspiration for moves never seen. Like learning the inner ways of a lover is how we come to know the universe and its secrets. In there is great satisfaction and a sense, no, conviction, that we are part of a greater whole. Whether the whole is aware of us is less important that whether we are aware of it. The challenge of coming to terms with the larger arena of reality beats the hell out of being satisfied with tiny slice of it. Like having an entire banana cream pie beats the hell out of one banana.

I hope that as you gain knowledge and make connections between facts and draw valid (or silly) conclusions concerning things that concern you, you will find moments of profound insight. If you examine those insights, I guarantee that you will find tiny slices of mirth, hilarity, and irresponsible laughter. They are in there, I assure you. Learning about things, and discovering that your new knowledge is valid is quite wonderful. It's almost like falling in love. You get a whole new perspective and often find the humor is in the notions you leave behind.

Go well.

"Here I was, thinking it was just a shadow or sumpthin!" Comment #56

Well, of course, Kseniya, it was just a shadow. But it is our shadow.

It was a perfect night here along the southern coast of France: No clouds in the sky with great views of the vanishing moon. The temperature was c.8C or so; the only "problem" was the fecking time (UTC+1hr, so totality was after 4am). I was too sleepy to go down to the beach, but in retrospect I probably should have; the view would have been slightly out over the Mediterranean, probably "above" a coastal village a few kilometres away.

What impressed me the most was something Phil Plait mentioned at the BA Blog: Sometimes the moon really does look like a globe. I definitely got that impression.

Hey PZ, thanks for posting the lovely photo that Lindsey Bradsher captured! That's almost what I saw last year when the PNW (Pacific Northwest) eclipse took place. I tried to shoot it with my camera and no cigar.What I saw was more of a deeper orangy-blood red than Lindsey's photo.

Kudos to Lindsey for capturing and sharing a beautiful experience.

Eric--thanks for the photos...they were great!

I was lucky to have walked outside to get my mail, when I noticed the clouds had cleared up and the moon was fully exposed (that sounds naughty!), and realized I could watch the eclipse. It was a beautiful night here in the Northwest corner of Washington State, only a few clouds , and very rarely obscurring the view.

One of the coolest moments: a young woman around 18 or 20 running across the parking lot to find the best place to see the eclipse. She kept looking up, and I was afraid she was going to trip.

Just a question--did a satellite pass in front of the moon at one point? It seemed too high to be a plane, and no red flashing lights...or was it that missile that shot down that errant satellite? That was kind of interesting...

Trent #27, I'm sure Phil could do a better job than me but here goes. The sunlight is refracted into the earth's shadow and passes through the earth's atmosphere which scatters it on its way to the moon. Shorter wavelengths (blue end of the spectrum) are more likely to be scattered by particles in the atmosphere (whic his also why we get blue skies, right?), leaving a higher proportion of longer wavelengths (red) in the light that finally hits the moon. Same thing as red sunset/rise.
More dust = more wavelength loss = more red colour on the moon.

You know, the moon actually is going away (but not that fast). It's receding at somewhat 1 inch a year? (Someone help me out here) It all has to do with something about a collision with Earth by another planet some 4.6 billion years ago. That is unless you are a creationist, in that case the moon was there ever since genesis.

Hmmm, I look at that photo, and have an overwhelming desire to point and shout "Goddidit!" :-)

for blf @74 : Yup, I wasn't getting out of bed to have a squiz - anyway after a long series of clear nights, Paris could find nothing better to do than be overcast for the event. Not to worry, I did get a good view of the eclipse back in Autumn last year...

*pouts*

Totality wasn't going to happen here until about 4:30 a.m. today. I actually managed to be up for it, only to discover that it had clouded over during the night and it was raining.

Now I need a nap.

Absolutely lovely! I've got you beat, though, PZ, I watched (most) of the eclipse through a skylight in my bedroom! Fantastic!

SG

I hope, mr. Mayer, that you don't feel so smug now after last nite's solar eclipse. It happened right on schedule, didn't it? How do you explain that? You haven't mentioned the contreversy that "scientists" don't know why that happens - all they have is the "theory" of Newtonism. And that's only a theory! Now you think that by renaming it a "scientific theory" it will make it ok.

The Bible isn't only a theory - it's a fact. I have one right here in front of me. If that isn't a fact I don't know what is. And now that we know the eclipse happened, our researchers will have no problem at all finding the predictions in the Bible. If that isn't research I don't know what is.

After trying to hurriedly align my telescope last night, to no avail, I finally just switched to manual. I spent all night showing the neighbors spectacular views of the Moon and Saturn. We had unusually good viewing conditions for Florida last night. Very nice. If I hadn't waited till the last minute I could have hooked up the CCD and collected some shots, but it takes some time to set that all up properly.

This morning as I was in the shower it dawned on me why I couldn't get the telescope aligned properly for auto tracking. I entered 2007 for the year instead of 2008. DUH!

"Who should I sacrifice?"

The creationist guy in the whale evolution post would be a good start.

@Richard #82: ...Solar eclipse eh? It was a lunar! :P

It was very nice... I didn't even have to go freeze my ass outside to see it, I had a perfect view from my kitchen window!

BPer @#53. Thanks for the info! I will definitely check out your group. Very cool about seeing Saturn, I know I saw a nice red star at least, but that's about all else I could see.

Thank you so much Paul for alerting us to this coming. I often follow these things, but for some reason had missed this one. Thanks to your alert we all enjoyed sitting in the dark in our dining room and peering out the window at a beautiful eclipse on such a perfect crisp cold night. I tried in vain a few times to capture it in a photo, but like you found the angle and the glass made it hard to get more than a colorful blur. I finally put away the camera and just enjoyed the moment.

I was watching the eclipse with some people outside a bar and pointed out what was truly remarkable about it: the fact that we knew it was coming whereas just a few hundred years ago superstitious folk would have been running around panicking over whatever monstrous force they thought was devouring the moon.

It was supposed to be fairly clear in the Southeast, but it turned out to be mostly cloudy. Occasionally it cleared up for a few seconds, long enough to see the whole thing (but no Saturn, alas). Amazing. Just like the beginning blush of a peach hanging over Georgia.

I had forgotten about it until I had changed into my jammies, ended up putting on a robe and going out in the front yard. I'm old enough to wear serious nightclothes, robes based on warmth and absorbency and cotton content...but I live on a fairly active road. Cars were slowing down to watch this crazy pajamaed woman staring at the treetops (I also have to deal with pine trees here). I'm starting my eccentric old lady persona early, might have it down completely before I hit sixty, when I'll start offering gin fizzes to passersby.

There's a bad moon on the rise...

There's a bathroom on the righr?

Here's the eclipse as seen from South Carolina, where it was still somewhat clear and nowhere near as cold.

Would Lindsey's picture be the same picture I found here ?

http://www.stern.de/wissenschaft/kosmos/:Mondfinsternis-Schauspiel-Himm…

Joel 2:31 "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come."

Here's the eclipse from Alberta, perhaps sharper due to lack of vibes from the trembling of nearby cowering creationists.

http://naturalinfidel.blogspot.com/2008/02/lunar-eclipse.html

I officially hate myself for doing this.

Umilik:

No, that one's much better than mine; mine at its highest resolution, and still only the size of a quarter.

mine IS at its highest resolution, rather, and my color is muddier. I wonder if the difference is in the camera, or the local light pollution?

That was lovely! A completely harmless, yet spectacular astronomical phenomenon which can be enjoyed by all ages!
And when at last the moon was freed from its occluding shadow, how endeared we were of its reflected light, and how precious it seemed. I liked it.

I was a bit worried Woden's Day afternoon, since we started the day with 7 cm of snow. But the cloud cover broke around 7 pm and my family (in southern Indiana) were treated to a great view. We, too, kept mostly indoors, popping out for a few minutes every 10 minutes or so. What struck us was how the moon seem to glow from inside -- that was eerie.

No astro photos for me since my Pentax ME seized up a couple of years ago. Alas.

And now, sleet Thor's Day afternoon. I'm tellin' ya, in Louisiana, where I hail from, it would have been opposite: Clear skies bracketing a clouded-over moon.

That picture is such a fake. Since when are there no stars in the night sky?!? *tip-of-the-hat to moon-landing hoax theorists*

#43 Crudely Wrott,

You haven't heard? The Dragon had anus reconstruction surgery back in '47, which happens to be the year the first sightings in the modern day round of UFO sightings. The unusual shapes seen back then can be attributed to the fact his colon was out of practice.

#69 Fayne (and anybody else interested),

The 'Bertos (numerous prefixes) go a long way towards proving that even people of Mexican ancestry can fuck up Mexican food.