Wednesday, 8 October 2014

The moon is a sphere

I was fairly excited at the prospect of seeing tonight's lunar eclipse but I neglected to take into account not being able to see the eastern horizon from my house.

I missed most of the total but enjoyed the crescent of the partial eclipse re-emerging. It's amazing how distinct the shadow leading to the penumbra.

My friend said there will be some good shots in tomorrow's paper. I laughed and said here in the 21st century I could probably get a high res online right now that matched the view I had through my binoculars, with the moon sitting on a bed of a few dozen stars.

A Twitter search for #lunareclipse gave me this gem from Australian based astronomer Katie Mack.
Not quite hi-res, but certainly true to the view I had. Bring on the next of the tetrad.

My friend also suggested I could listen to update on the wireless, then I wondered at how the utilisation of radio waves were so revolutionary - being able to transmit signals with no telegraph poles.

I wondered what bit of kit we have today that our grandchildren will snigger at - and I figure it's probably smartphones.

"What do you mean we can't send signals by thought?"

Katie posted a few other great snippets, just as Neil Tyson often does with physics. I'll leave you to ponder this gem
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