Once in a Blue Moon

Once in a Blue Moon, a Super Moon Eclipse

January sky watchers are in for a rare treat: a Blue Moon, a total lunar eclipse and a super moon all in the same month.A Blue Moon is when two full moons happen in the same calendar month; lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes into Earth’s shadow; and a Super Moon happens when the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth in a single orbit — coincides with a full moon. In this case, the super moon also happens to be the day of the lunar eclipse. The first full moon of January will take place on the night of Jan. 1 or the morning of Jan. 2, depending on your location. The second full moon and the lunar eclipse will occur on the night of Jan. 31 or the morning of Feb. 1. And the super moon will take place on the night of Jan. 30, which is technically one day before the moon reaches peak fullness, but nonetheless even NASA is willing to call the event a super moon.

Not every place on Earth will see the Blue Moon this month, because the second full moon of January won’t technically appear in those places until Feb. 1. These places include regions in eastern Asia and eastern Australia, where sky watchers won’t see the first full moon until Jan. 2 and the next full moon until the morning of Feb. 1. For example, in Melbourne, Australia, the full moon arrives on Jan. 2 at 1:24 p.m. local time, and the next full moon is on Feb. 1 at 1:26 a.m., so sky watchers will technically miss the Blue Moon by less than 2 hours.

But their fellow Aussies in Perth, in the southwestern part of the country, will get one, since the first full moon occurs on Jan. 2 at 10:24 a.m. local time, so the moon will still look quite full when it rises at 7:35 p.m. On Jan. 31, the moon rises at 7:09 p.m. and reaches fullness at 9:26 p.m.

Blue Moons are not as rare as the old saying “once in a blue moon” implies; they happen about once every 2.7 years, because the number of days in a lunation (new moon to new moon) is a bit less than the usual calendar month — 29.53 days as opposed to 31 or 30 days (except for February, which has 28 days, so a blue moon cannot occur). A sequence of 12 lunations adds up to 354.36 days, against the 365.24 days in a year. The discrepancy adds up over time, until a year will have 13 lunations as opposed to 12. For some observers, 2018 will feature two such blue moons— one in January and one in March (with no full moon in February).

Super moon and lunar eclipse

The real star of the show for moon watchers is the lunar eclipse on Jan. 31. The super moon (when the moon reaches its closest point to Earth in this orbit) will be the day before, on Jan. 30 at 4:58 a.m. EST (0958 GMT). The moon will be 223,068 miles (358,994 kilometers) from Earth, compared to the average distance of 238,855 miles (384,400 km), according to NASA.

Though a super moon does appear slightly larger than a full moon that takes place when Earth’s lunar companion is farther away from us in its orbit, the difference is nearly impossible for most sky watchers to notice because the moon is so bright and the maximum possible difference in the moon’s apparent size is small (only about 14 percent), according to NASA.

Unlike solar eclipses which are only visible from specific places on Earth, lunar eclipses are visible from anywhere it is nighttime. Lunar eclipses don’t occur every month because the plane of the lunar orbit is slightly tilted relative to the plane of the Earth’s orbit, so the Earth, sun and moon don’t always line up to put the moon in Earth’s shadow. For the Jan. 31 lunar eclipse, viewers in some places will not be able to see the entire event because it starts near moonrise or moonset. Lunar eclipses are only visible on Earth’s night side.

Observers in New York City will see the moon enter Earth’s penumbra (the lighter, outer part of its shadow) at 5:51 a.m. on Jan. 31. The penumbra darkens the moon only a little; unless you’re especially keen eyed, it is often difficult to notice. The moon will touch the umbra, the darker part of the shadow that gives the eclipse the distinctive look of darkening and reddening the moon, at 6:48 a.m. local time. But the moon sets only 16 minutes later, so New Yorkers will get to see only the first part of the eclipse. To see as much of the eclipse as possible, you’ll want to be near a flat western horizon.

The situation gets better as you move west. Chicagoan’s will see the penumbra touch the moon at 4:51 a.m. local time, and it will still be a good 26.7 degrees above the horizon (about 53 times the apparent width of the full moon). The umbra eclipse will start at 5:48 a.m. local time, and by 6:16a.m., the moon will take on its characteristic blood-red color as it enters totality. Even so, it will set only minutes later, at 7:03 a.m., just as the sun rises.

In Denver and points west, the eclipse will start at 3:51 a.m. local time, with the umbra reaching the moon’s edge at 4:48 a.m. The point of maximum eclipse, when the moon is deepest in the shadow of the Earth, will occur at 6:29 a.m. For the Mile-High City, the moon will set after the lunar eclipse ends at 7:07 a.m. local time, when the moon exits the umbra. Moon set will follow at 7:10 a.m.

Californians will have a better view of the end of totality, as the penumbra eclipse will start at 2:51 a.m. local time, and the partial eclipse will begin at 3:48 a.m. At 4:51 a.m. local time, the total phase will start, ending at 5:29 a.m. Totality will end at 6:07 a.m., and the moon will emerge from the umbra at 7:11 a.m. The penumbra shadow will pass after the moon is just below the horizon.

As one travels west across the Pacific, the lunar eclipse will occur earlier in the night; sky watchers in Hawaii will be able to see the entire thing from beginning to end, as will Alaskans and viewers in eastern Asia and Australia. On Jan. 31, people in Tokyo will see the lunar eclipse’s penumbra phase start at 7:51 p.m. local time. The umbra will touch the moon at 8:48 p.m., and the maximum eclipse will be at 10:29 p.m. At 11:07 p.m., the moon will reach the opposite side of the umbra, and at 12:11 a.m. on Feb. 1, it will emerge and enter the penumbra. At 1:08 a.m., the eclipse will end for viewers in Tokyo.

People in eastern Europe and western Asia will see something like a mirror image of the eclipse that observers in the Americas will see, because instead of occurring near moon set, the eclipse will start before the moon rises.

Viewers in Moscow will see the moon make a dramatic entrance as it rises while it is still red and deep in Earth’s shadow. Moon rise there is at 5:01 p.m. local time on Jan. 31, and the moon will reach the edge of the umbra at 5:07 p.m. The moon will emerge from the dark part of Earth’s shadow at 6:07 p.m. In New Delhi, the moon will rise at 5:55 p.m. local time and will be fully covered by the umbra at 6:21 p.m., so it will turn red just as it reaches about a half a hand’s width above the eastern horizon.

Hopefully you will have clear viewing in the winter sky…pg

 

Blue Wizard

Burning aromatic woods and Blackberry Brandy wave offerings

Celebration of the changing of the seasons a Strawberry moon followed by the summer solstice. A blessing to all and may you enjoy the fruits of the marriage of carbon and sunlight…pg

Solar Density

graph of seismic wave speeds through the solar body

 Seismic wave speed graph

The above is my reconstruction from the Wolff – Patrone paper, figure 6 graph referenced at: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/wolff-and-patrone-a-new-way-that-planets-can-affect-the-sun
The left gauge is seismic speed and the bottom is solar radius.

The red line represents the helioseismic sound speed relative to that would be expected in a uniform standard model sun. The shading is to give a better visual of the density changes as the wave travel speed up or down from the norm. Faster in more dense levels and slower in levels less dense.

In the paper the region of 0.65r to 0.72r seems to be the level that would have the most PE for cell overturn and positive contribution to solar output due to barycenter effects. This would seem to me to be a positive indication of “conveyer belt” motive power.

Once again the solar body is postulated to have little or no effect from solar system center of gravity as it is a body in free fall. They still neglect inertia of the solar mass although they do take into effect the suns’ rotational energies.

Wolff & Patrone call for the fusion fuel to be better supplied to the solar furnace due to the lower level cell mixing in the 0.16r to 0.3r layer. I agree that that is the most likely area for the fusion forge to be located but the mixing in that level from “cells” is, by their own admission very small.

The 0.72r to surface looks to be the solar face that we are used to. 😎 I am glad to see what is behind the shades. The real surface may be at the 0.72r line.

The stepped changes in speed relative to the expected straight line speed changes due to depth compression of the solar material gives us a better insight of the interior conditions of the sun. The basic premiss is that the more solid levels transmits waves faster then less solid levels. What conditions would result in changes in solidity? The possibilities are; liquid to solid, vapor to liquid, turbulence and energy vibration levels.

Accelerations in the 0.0r to 0.1r appear to dictate a very solid core. The deep slow down and then increase to the 0.27r level looks to be a region of change phase as upper liquid crystallizes to the lower solid level. The gradual freezing would cause speed changes because of liquid to solid interface interference, faster in clean ridged liquid, slower in mix and faster in clean solid. That step at 0.28r reminds me of the thermal step of heat of fusion in an otherwise smooth sine up to 0.45r and then down to 0.62. though it may well be the level of fusion of free hydrogen into captured neutrons. The level 0.52r to 0.62 would be the area of fission as unbound neutrons convert back to hydrogen to add energy to the “conveyer belt” or “cells”of the the upper 0.62 to 0.72liquid level. The speed changes in this top layer is due to turbulence of the horizontal flows. The straight line of the 0.72r to 1.0r is the compressed hydrogen gas sun, that we all know too well, and is a bit faster then the standard model. This is most likely the result of the averaging of the helioseismic data of the entire sun.  pg