3983 Dread, confusion

Monday, October 6, 2014

I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing

the rich would have kept more of it for themselves.

 --Bruce Grocott

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Lately I've been coming across photos, pictures, videos with snow in them, and every time I see them I literally feel sick to my stomach.  Nausea.

I've never before had such a strong reaction to the coming of winter.

I hate cold.  I hate snow.  I've always hated cold and snow.  I especially hate snow when it's falling, or blowing.  The only good snow is melting snow.

I guess I have a bad feeling about this winter.

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I've already said I don't understand how the moon moves in relation to the Earth and sun.  (Why do we capitalize "Earth", but not moon or sun?) This Wednesday morning at 6:25 am we are supposed to be able to see a full lunar eclipse (although I have little hope of seeing anything here - the sky is always either cloudy or full of pollution, can't ever see more than a few stars at night even on the clearest and darkest of nights).

Anyway, that got me wondering where the sun would be in relation to the moon and Earth at that time.  So I looked up sunrise and sunset times.  Sunrise here today was 06:59:00 and sunset was 18:30:08.  Tomorrow it's at 07:00:02 and 18:28:32.  On Tuesday into Wednesday the moon will be full full, and I assume sunrise will be at something like 07:01:04..  

So 35 minutes before Wednesday sunrise here, the moon will be in full sunshine.  Then as the Earth and my house turn toward sunrise, the moon will move toward the west and into the Earth's shadow, that's the eclipse, and then the moon sets here as the sun is "coming up", and the moon will remain in the Earth's shadow for about half of its next circuit.

I guess.

But, but, but, 

the moon "sets" at some point every night/morning/day, so howcome it isn't in the Earth's shadow more often?  Like almost once per circuit (per month-ish)?  Somewhere on the globe, anyway.

I don't understand.

I think my problem is that I don't understand the moon's path.  And I suspect it isn't a regular path, like man-made satellites are designed to follow, same path, over the same points on the Earth every circuit.   I suspect it "progresses".

But, but, but

does that imply that there are places on the Earth that don't see the moon AT ALL during some period of that progression?  Or is it large enough and far enough away that it is always visible to the entire half of the world it's "on the side of" at all times?  I suspect that's true.  Daytime moons aren't unusual.

But, but, but

when I look at the moon from my porch, it seems to "rise" from about the same spot every time.  Which, uh, doesn't support a path progression.

I give up.  Again.

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A FEW HOURS LATER!  

The moon stuff gets weird.  It's no damn wonder I'm confused.  Want to blow your mind?  Read this: Wednesday's Lunar Eclipse Is Technically Impossible

To quote a line from the article, "And indeed, during a lunar eclipse, the sun and moon are exactly 180 degrees apart in the sky."  

Duh?  That's what I thought, and one reason (of several) why I couldn't figure it out.
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3840 Confession

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

I don't understand the moon.  I don't understand anything about the moon.  I mean the phases, the route it takes, the direction, nothing.  Today I read that the moon crosses the Earth's equator every two weeks!  Does that mean it stays north of the equator for two weeks and then south for two weeks, then north again?  How does that work?  Sometimes the moon is very high in the sky.  How can that happen without the moon crossing the equator, unless during parts of that time it isn't visible in the opposite hemisphere at all?  Are there periods that the Arctic or Antarctic have no moon until it crosses the equator again?  I assumed it crossed the equator on every circuit or something.

I vaguely understand that the phases (full, new, quarters, etc.) have to do with the alignment of the moon and the sun, but "vaguely" is literal.  Like, when we see a full moon here, is it full everywhere on Earth?  How does that happen?  Are there nights when we don't see any moon at all, no matter what the phase, because it appeared in our sky during the day (like it did last week)?

Over the years a few people have tried to explain it to me, but then when I start asking questions it becomes clear even to that person that they don't really understand it.  They just thought they did until they really thought about it.

You know what?  I've decided I don't care any more.  I've given up trying to understand the moon.
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