Scottobear's Blog

Very Nifty Trip to the grocer with my Bro this morning... they have automated cashiers at the Winn-Dixie on Cordova and 17th. They didn't have as much of a variety of foods as the Publix does, so no veggie munchies or some of the other no-meat goodies, but at least they had Boca burger and some morningstar stuff.

I've been bad about cooking lately... it's a lot easier to measure and control pre-measured portions off of a freezer-box.

Bro and I had a nice time gabbing and handing out, however briefly. I'll be seeing him again tomorrow to give him some goodies, and then it will be a while. He got a haircut... the shortest I've seen it since he was a kid. Still long on top, but the back is trimmed to the hairline rather than the shoulder-length or longer he normally keeps it.

There was an extremely skinny squirrel outside that was getting the hairy eyeball from Newt; I put a dab of peanut butter on a cracker outside for him to snack on.

Next week, ACIM splits into two zones... a first and a third-floor office. The meeting room, Fly Me, Newbie and Rhode Island Red will be upstairs, and the Big Kahuna, Volunteers and Prop2 will be downstairs... Tomorrow, the big Kahuna will be in Texas, talking to police departments.

Hmm... Live journal is having some tummy rumblings, and even the off-site status pages are on the fritz, a new one.

I'm sire to 24 active vampires in the Vampire game right now, including: LdySaphyre (6400 pints), Liliana (2351 pints), MissV (2010 pints), mixedresults (1246 pints), gilbella (1115 pints), Morgoth (226 pints), Sierina (190 pints), DEATHBEAR (86 pints), UnknownPersona (73 pints), phenrill (60 pints)

When being placed under arrest for DUI and drug possession flashing "an honorary deputy sheriff's badge" won't do as much good as you might think. I'm glad that folks that name-drop and think that they can use connections to get out of situations can get nailed now and then. Hopefully he'll get in a treatment program and stop his nonsense as soon as possible.... Apparently he crashed his car while talking on a cell phone, smelled of beer, had cocaine in his possession and had a broken toe. Ron Brafford is identified as a senior vice-president and spokesman for Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and says he was driving home from a fund-raising talent show.

I added a few Yahoo RSS feeds to my lj reading list - Oddly Enough & Science ... if they get too rapid-fire, I'll delegate them out of my default, and just let them live in feeds.

I've got a couple of public filters in place.. communities, humans, feeds and image heavy.

The Harvest Moon Arrives Early This Year

The Full Moon of Wednesday, Sept. 10 also carries the title of the Harvest Moon for those living in the Northern Hemisphere. This year it arrives earlier than is typical.

The annual Harvest Moon is defined as the Full Moon that arrives nearest to the fall equinox, which is on Sept. 23. In one out of three years the Harvest Moon is in October. The 2003 version comes unusually early, although it can occur as early as Sept. 8 (as in 1976) or as late as October 7 (as in 1987).

The Moon officially turns full when it reaches a spot in the sky opposite to the Sun in our sky. This moment will occur at 16:36 Greenwich Time (12:36 p.m. EDT or 9:36 a.m. PDT) on Wednesday.

Many people think that the Harvest Moon remains in the night sky longer than any of the other Full Moons we see during the year, but that is not so. What sets it apart is that farmers at the climax of the current harvest season can work late into the night by the Moons light.

A Full Moon always rises about the time the Sun sets. But at this time of year, instead of rising its normal average 50 minutes later each day, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night. Below we’ve provided some examples for ten North American cities.

The local moonrise times for Sept. 9, 10 and 11 are provided, the middle date being that of the Harvest Full Moon. The Moon will appear nearly fully on each of these nights.

In actuality, over this three-night interval for our relatively small sampling, the rising of the Moon comes, on average, just over 23 minutes later each night. A quick study of the table shows that the night-to-night difference is greatest for the more southerly locations (Miami, located at near latitude 26N, sees moonrise come an average of just under 33 minutes later). Meanwhile, the difference is less at more northerly locations (at Edmonton, Alberta, located at latitude 53.6N, the average difference is less than 12 minutes).

Why the strange seasonal circumstance? The Moon appears to move along the ecliptic, an arc in the sky that the Sun also traces out. At this time of year when rising, the ecliptic makes its smallest angle with respect to the horizon for those living in the Northern Hemisphere.

In contrast, for those living in the Southern Hemisphere, the ecliptic at this time of year appears to stand almost perpendicular (at nearly a right angle) to the eastern horizon, so the difference for the time of moonrise exceeds the average of 50 minutes per night. At Melbourne, Australia, for instance, the night-to-night difference amounts to 64 minutes.

Interestingly, for those who live near 60 North latitude, the Moon does indeed appear to rise at the same time each night around the time of the Harvest Moon.

And for those who live even farther to the north, a paradox: the Moon appears to rise earlier! At Reykjavik, Iceland (latitude 64.2N), the times of moonrise on Sept. 9, 10 and 11 will be, respectively, 8:55 p.m., 8:49 p.m. and 8:43 p.m.

Moonrise Times For select locations during the Harvest Moon of 2003.

Basic Sky Guides