Lunar Eclipse tonight!

[EC]

don't you love saying the word eclipse?  i do.
this is fun.  it's also a full moon coming.  also, the word lunatic roots from luna/lune, which means moon.  i like moon news.
http://tinyurl.com/2l4yuy

[BH]

[TheBigChicken]

lupine means wolf.....now me and the little woman are gonna break out my dvd copy of The Howling ::) ::) ::)  Damn I really like the effects in that movie...

[EC]

ahahaaa that alien cartoon is so ridic.  haha.

soo...
from the etymological dictionary:

lupine
"wolf-like," 1660, from Fr. lupine "wolf-like," from L. lupinus "of the wolf," from lupus "wolf." The plant name is attested from 1398, from L. lupinus; but the reason for association with the animal is unclear; perhaps it was so called because of a belief that the plants were harmful to soil.

i found it interesting that the word "lupus" means wolf - because isn't lupus also a disease, and doesn't it mean that you get really really tired?

so i checked the etymological dictionary again:

lupus
1392, used of several diseases that cause ulcerations of the skin, from M.L. lupus, from L. lupus "wolf," apparently because it "devours" the affected part.

lunatic (adj.)
c.1290, "affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes of the moon," from O.Fr. lunatique "insane," from L. lunaticus "moon-struck," from luna "moon." Cf. O.E. monseoc "lunatic," lit. "moon-sick;" M.H.G. lune "humor, temper, mood, whim, fancy" (Ger. Laune), from L. luna. Cf. also N.T. Gk. seleniazomai "be epileptic," from selene "moon." The noun meaning "lunatic person" is first recorded 1377. Lunatic fringe (1913) was apparently coined by U.S. politician Theodore Roosevelt. Lunatic soup (1933) was Australian slang for "alcoholic drink."

also of interesting note:

hysterical
1615, from L. hystericus "of the womb," from Gk. hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb" (see uterus). Originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. Hysterics is 1727; hysteria, abstract noun, formed 1801.

and then i checked this:

month
O.E. monað, from P.Gmc. *mænoth- (O.N. manaðr, M.Du. manet, Du. maand, O.H.G. manod, Ger. Monat, Goth. menoþs "month"), related to *mænon- "moon" (see moon). Its cognates mean only "month" in the Romance languages, but in Gmc. generally continue to do double duty. Phrase a month of Sundays "a very long time" is from 1832 (roughly 7 and a half months, but never used literally). [italics and bolding mine]

then i went on a trail of links, which can happen sometimes on days when you're a bit hungover because you were hanging out with your dad:

the skeptics don't think the moons phases mean anything
http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

i disagree.  i've read in numerous places that women are meant to begin their cycles on the new moon.  so if that's the case, at least for women, we get a bit hysterical around the full moon.

is anybody still reading this far? ;)

every full moon has a name - here is the one for february:
Full Snow Moon - February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February's full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names
if you click the link you'll find out why nick drake named a song.

what's the point of all of this?  absolutely nothing.  i'm never able to figure out exactly what i believe if we're talking about things on a spiritual/mystical level.  except that i find it all pretty interesting.  

[primushead]

You know, Columbus used an eclipse much like this one to save his ass one night...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23073963/

...It was on his fourth and final voyage, while exploring the coast of Central America that Columbus found himself in dire straits. He left Cádiz, Spain, on May 11, 1502, with the ships Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína and Santiago de Palos. Unfortunately, thanks to an epidemic of shipworms eating holes in the planking of his fleet, Columbus' was forced to abandon two of his ships and finally had to beach his last two caravels on the north coast of Jamaica on June 25, 1503.

Initially, the Jamaican natives welcomed the castaways, providing them with food and shelter, but as the days dragged into weeks, tensions mounted. Finally, after being stranded for more than six months, half of Columbus' crew mutinied, robbing and murdering some of the natives, who, themselves grew weary of supplying cassava, corn and fish in exchange for little tin whistles, trinkets, hawk's bells and other rubbishy goods.


...Columbus, of course, had a copy of the Almanac with him when he was stranded on Jamaica. And he soon discovered from studying its tables that on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 29, 1504, a total eclipse of the moon would take place soon after the time of moonrise.

Armed with this knowledge, three days before the eclipse, Columbus asked for a meeting with the natives' Cacique ("chief") and announced to him that his Christian god was angry with his people for no longer supplying Columbus and his men with food. Therefore, he was about to provide a clear sign of his displeasure: Three nights hence, he would all but obliterate the rising full moon, making it appear "inflamed with wrath," which would signify the evils that would soon be inflicted upon all of them...

...And, just over an hour later, as full darkness descended, the moon indeed exhibited an eerily inflamed and "bloody" appearance: In place of the normally brilliant late winter full moon there now hung a dim red ball in the eastern sky.

According to Columbus' son, Ferdinand, the natives were terrified at this sight and ". . . with great howling and lamentation came running from every direction to the ships laden with provisions, praying to the Admiral to intercede with his god on their behalf." They promised that they would gladly cooperate with Columbus and his men if only he would restore the moon back to its normal self.

I love this story!!

[fitzcarraldo]

thanks Meg.  starts in 20 mins, a lil cloudy here in NYC but can see the full moon now  from my window  :) AhWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thatswhatshesaid]

ahahaaa that alien cartoon is so ridic.  haha.

soo...
from the etymological dictionary:

lupine
"wolf-like," 1660, from Fr. lupine "wolf-like," from L. lupinus "of the wolf," from lupus "wolf." The plant name is attested from 1398, from L. lupinus; but the reason for association with the animal is unclear; perhaps it was so called because of a belief that the plants were harmful to soil.

i found it interesting that the word "lupus" means wolf - because isn't lupus also a disease, and doesn't it mean that you get really really tired?

so i checked the etymological dictionary again:

lupus
1392, used of several diseases that cause ulcerations of the skin, from M.L. lupus, from L. lupus "wolf," apparently because it "devours" the affected part.

lunatic (adj.)
c.1290, "affected with periodic insanity, dependent on the changes of the moon," from O.Fr. lunatique "insane," from L. lunaticus "moon-struck," from luna "moon." Cf. O.E. monseoc "lunatic," lit. "moon-sick;" M.H.G. lune "humor, temper, mood, whim, fancy" (Ger. Laune), from L. luna. Cf. also N.T. Gk. seleniazomai "be epileptic," from selene "moon." The noun meaning "lunatic person" is first recorded 1377. Lunatic fringe (1913) was apparently coined by U.S. politician Theodore Roosevelt. Lunatic soup (1933) was Australian slang for "alcoholic drink."

also of interesting note:

hysterical
1615, from L. hystericus "of the womb," from Gk. hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb" (see uterus). Originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. Hysterics is 1727; hysteria, abstract noun, formed 1801.

and then i checked this:

month
O.E. monað, from P.Gmc. *mænoth- (O.N. manaðr, M.Du. manet, Du. maand, O.H.G. manod, Ger. Monat, Goth. menoþs "month"), related to *mænon- "moon" (see moon). Its cognates mean only "month" in the Romance languages, but in Gmc. generally continue to do double duty. Phrase a month of Sundays "a very long time" is from 1832 (roughly 7 and a half months, but never used literally). [italics and bolding mine]

then i went on a trail of links, which can happen sometimes on days when you're a bit hungover because you were hanging out with your dad:

the skeptics don't think the moons phases mean anything
http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

i disagree.  i've read in numerous places that women are meant to begin their cycles on the new moon.  so if that's the case, at least for women, we get a bit hysterical around the full moon.

is anybody still reading this far? ;)

every full moon has a name - here is the one for february:
Full Snow Moon - February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February's full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names
if you click the link you'll find out why nick drake named a song.

what's the point of all of this?  absolutely nothing.  i'm never able to figure out exactly what i believe if we're talking about things on a spiritual/mystical level.  except that i find it all pretty interesting.  

it is also proven that women tend to have their babies during a full moon, i guess that is due to gravity though. pretty interesting.

[whothrewthecake]

the teachers here will prob agree with me: i can tell when it's a full moon just based on the kids. they turn into nutbags.

[thatswhatshesaid]

the teachers here will prob agree with me: i can tell when it's a full moon just based on the kids. they turn into nutbags.

i will second that. being a father myself, i have paid attention to the fact that my kids seem to be much more emotional in every aspect when a full moon is out.

[tomEisenbraun]

watched it for about an hour and a half down here in downtown Athens. It was a beautiful night in about the mid-50's--perfect for watching this thing.

Meg, I didn't read through the entirety of your stuff, but I did take a look at most of it. Interesting thing, though, and I'll link to some helpful animations to help show it:

An eclipse will only happen on a full moon. The way the moon's phase works is relative to its position in relation to the Sun. It actually takes the moon something like 29.5 days to make one rotation. So if our day is 24 hours, it takes the moon 29.5 Earth-days to make one full moon "day" (sunrise to sunrise).

Now, because of tidal friction and the way gravity works, a massive body orbiting a more massive body will eventually be slowed to the point where its weight actually shifts out so that it is held in one position by tidal forces

Think of how our moon causes tides on Earth--Earth's gravity actually pulled the moon's matter into tidal regions much in the same way that our moon pulls our water into high tides. So the moon has two "high tides" that are actually made up of the moon itself. These are much more permanent than our water-tides. Think about Earth tide for a second--we have high tide at the point closest to the moon, but we also have a slightly weaker high tide on the side opposite the moon - which is why we have high tide twice a day. This is caused by the moon's gravity--it wants to pull that water toward it. However, our Earth spins faster than the moon rotates around it, so these high tides that the moon cause want to actually move away from the moon.

The moon trying to hold onto the high tide as the high tide attempts to spin away from it is part of the idea of tidal friction. Because of this, our Earth's rotation has actually been very very very very gradually slowed, and the moon's rotation has actually been stopped altogether. Recall high tide on Earth. Well, Earth had a similar effect on the moon, except with the moon's solid mass. In it's slowing, the mass of the moon developed into these areas of high tide (nearest the earth and farthest from the earth) slowly over a very long time. This gradually became more and more focused until the moon had a definite high tide on either side. Because the moon's regions of tide won't shift because they're made of solid moon mass, the moon became held in place, with the side that faces us now facing us permanently. This is where the idea of the dark side of the moon came from--there's a side we seriously never see because of this.

So how does this tie into phase?

Let's go back to that 29.5 day cycle. One moon day is 29.5 earth days, and we watch the sun sslowly travel across the surface of the moon every night. So we can actually watch how slowly it takes the sun to make its way all the way around the moon--it only shifts so much with each new day.

So what determines which phase we're observing? The position of the moon relative to the Earth and Sun. What we see when we look at the moon is the break angle of the Sun's light across the moon's surface. A new moon happens when our moon is between us and the Sun--the Sun's light hits only the side of the moon that doesn't face us. A full moon happens at the exact opposite--the Earth is between the Sun and moon and we see the side of the moon that faces us fully illuminated.

So why then, shouldn't a new moon always result in a solar eclipse, if the moon is between Earth and the sun? And a full moon should always make a total lunar eclipse, right? Not quite. The planes of orbit don't quite match up between the Sun, Earth, and Moon, so they are normally not directly in line with eachother. However, four times a year the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up as the moon falls into certain nodes, and if it is in the correct phase at this time, an eclipse will happen. So if we have a full moon like tonight, and it falls in a time where it lines up in the node, we will have a lunar eclipse. If it were a new moon right now, those in the right place would stand the chance of a solar eclipse of at least some partiality.

So--to recap. A full/new moon doesn't always result in a lunar/solar eclipse, but a lunar/solar eclipse will always and only take place during a full/new moon. No coincidence whatsoever that we have a full moon on eclipse night. We couldn't have an eclipse if the moon weren't full.

My Astronomy 1010 course is paying off!



Also, some helpful animations for demonstrating phase, eclipse, and a couple other important tidbits:
http://hal.physast.uga.edu/~jss/1010/ch2/phases.swf (phases of the moon)
http://hal.physast.uga.edu/~jss/1010/ch2/eclipses.swf (shows the shadows thrown  
       during eclipses)
http://hal.physast.uga.edu/~jss/1010/ch2/orbittilt.swf (demonstrates the moon's    
        average orbit in relation to angle the Sun hits the Earth)



http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html

[TheBigChicken]

How is the Classic City treating you Tom ?

[tomEisenbraun]

haha, that last post ought to answer that one!

I love it here! The school is incredible! Know of any local bands I need to check out? --I'd really love to work my way into the Athens music scene, because it sounds great, but I don't have a clue where to begin on this one.