Saturday, December 10, 2011

Lunar Eclipse


 Normally I use Saturday morning as a chance to sleep in but today I just had to get up at 6:00 and check out the last lunar eclipse of the year. In fact I think they are saying it is the last total eclipse for three years. This eclipse was unusual because it happened to occur just as the moon was setting and here in Southern California we had the ideal view. 


When an eclipse happens as the moon is setting the suns light passes through the earths atmosphere. The atmosphere scatters all of the light the blue end of the spectrum so all that is left to shine on the moon is the red end of the spectrum. That is why the moon looks so red during the eclipse. 


I thought I would have more time but as you can see from the pictures I only had a few minutes before the moon descended below the horizon. At that point I went right back to bed.


Today I finally got the Christmas decorations up. I usually do that the first Saturday after Thanksgiving but life has been way too busy this year. We also went and bought our tree. Now that the kids are gone we were bound and determined to buy an artificial tree this year but the nice fake trees are expensive and Costco had the real trees pretty cheap so I guess it won't happen this year. 


Tonight was the Church Christmas dinner. We had prime rib and it was really good. I love prime rib.


--------------------trivia--------------------
In 1961 we had 27 students per teacher and spent $2,800 per student (in 2011 dollars)
Today we have 16 students per teacher and spend $10,000 per student.
Students perform worse now than they did in 1961. I don't think money is the problem here.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How nice to see the total eclipse. The moon was big and shiny in SLC. Merry Christmas. Nola

Alycia Grayce (Crowley Party) said...

I wish I could have seen this! I didn't know it was happening. Money isn't the problem... tenure and bad parents in my opinion is the problem!