Sunday, September 27, 2015

Everyone Look UP!!

Yikes!!  I got bad info ... don't wait until 10:00 PST ... it should be visible around 7:30 or so!!!

It's all over the news ... a lunar eclipse happening tonight (Sunday) which won't happen again for almost 20 years.  A blood-red supermoon will occur tonight in combination with a lunar eclipse.  Not that it actually turns red, but the earth's shadow crossing over the moon makes it look that way.  This won't happen again until 2033, so step outside about 10:00 Pacific Coast time and take a look UP.

I took this picture of the full moon last night.  It's pretty hard to photograph the moon because it is so bright in the sky, it fools your camera's automatic settings into overexposing every shot.  For those interested that can set your camera to Manual ... try ISO 200, f-8 or f-10 at 1/125th shutter speed.  From there you can fine tune it to get some great pictures with your telephoto lens.
I started the day early yesterday ... didn't sleep a wink.  It's just too dang HOT here and I'm too cheap to turn the AC on.  I washed one side of the rig late Friday night, getting another 1/3 done by 8:00 am.  After that, the temperatures rose too high to be comfortable.  I retreated to the house and set the thermostat at 82.  It ran on and off all day. $$$$

I vacuumed the house for 2-1/2 hours, dumping the bin three times.  I can't figure out how it gets so dirty in here when no one is home!!  My internal temperatures quickly raised to higher than is comfortable, so I set up every fan I have around the living area and turned on the ceiling fan.  $$$$$

Every time I thought of something to do, it involved a long walk back out to the rig to get whatever it was I had not unloaded yet.  Five trips later, I grabbed my big plastic container and brought in a couple of large loads, including all the canned goods.  One trip for makeup, one for my camera, another one for the card reader for my camera, another one for the tripod I'll use tonight, etc. etc.

Most of the afternoon I sat on the couch trying to stay comfortable.  I'm the one you see in Oregon outside at 6 am in shorts and a t-shirt.  My internal temperature is already high ... making me a good candidate for melting in this weather!!

After dinner, I finished washing the rig ... she's real purdy now ... and put everything away.  I filled her up with DEF fluid and sprayed all the rubber seals with conditioner.  I still have some minor maintenance to do, but for the most part, I'm ready to roll tomorrow morning for the big town of Hanford ... in the 95 degree heat ... where I won't have electricity.  Which reminds me, I need to fuel up so I can run the generator the entire time I'm there!!!

I spent another restless sleepless night on a too hard bed.  It's difficult getting used to sleeping here again.  Different bed, trains, neighbors music and loud talking, dogs barking, house creaking and it's HOT!!!  I give up ... tonight I'm turning the AC to COLD so I can get some rest.  $$$$$$$






4 comments:

  1. I think you may have the eastern time zone for the eclipse. You may miss it if you wait until 10.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are SO right Dave ... not that it mattered here. It's been overcast all day and I doubt I will be able to see anything!!

      Delete
  2. According to my amateur but knowledgable astronomer friend: "[Here] is the Time table for the lunar eclipse for Mountain Daylight time. For Pacific and Arizona subtract an hour, for Central add an hour (Later) and 2 hours later for eastern.

    Enters Penumbral (light shadow no bite out of moon) visable from central texas east) 6:11:47 PM
    Partial eclipse starts (bite out of moon) (visable from central texas east) 7:07:13 PM
    FULL eclipse starts (moon completely covered) (moon just rising in NM & AZ) 8:11:12 PM
    Maximum Eclipse (Rusty red stage center of shadow) 8:47:09 PM
    FULL ECLIPSE ENDS 9:23:05 PM
    Partial eclipse ends 10:27:05 PM
    Penumbral ends 11:22:31 PM

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much. My information was incorrect. So far we haven't seen anything due to the overcast skies!! RATS!!

      Delete