The Lion, The Rings and the Moon Shadow

(You can click on the image above for a larger view).

I LOVE a good Sky Show!

(sometimes, Magic is such a nerd! lol)

Hopefully, everyone was somewhere that they could see the eclipse last night. It's the last total lunar eclipse until December 2010, and it was a beauty.

For once, Seattle actually had clear skies for a celestial event. It was cold and crisp and clear, and the show was amazing to watch.

I'm sure I've seen a lunar eclipse in my time. I must have. But last night...it was just spectacular.

From out in the 'burbs, we actually had a good view with less light pollution than some closer to Seattle.

The sky was so clear and bright...you could see stars and clusters that don't often show themselves to casual gazers.

Most notably, Saturn and Regulus were very visible framing either side of the Moon during it's time in the Earth's shadow.

Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo (hence the Lion reference, lol). It was bright, and shining up above the moon. You can see Regulus as that bright blue star, but a lot of the constellation itself is up and beyond the frame. You can see some of it though, check the image below to get some hints (it gets bigger if you click on it too :))



Saturn is...well, Saturn. If you haven't heard of it, you probably are very lost in this entire blog entry and should just give up now.

The rings were bright and visible and the planet itself was vibrant and bright alongside, below and left of the reddish moon. You could see it in all it's beautific glory quite easily during the darkest part of the eclipse...well, you could see the rings if you had a telescope...but I digress. The planet itself was quite spectacular and easily seen.

It was worth the cold hands and feet to stand outside for a bit and just gaze up at the show. No tickets, no promoters, no riots afterward. Someone, somewhere probably found a way to make a profit, but hey, it's there for everyone to see for free, a gift of nature that doesn't mind you figuring out how to work the system for yourself...just an amazing show of nature doing it's thing without a care to what we are doing.

Helps with remembering scale and size in relation to the universe...

Life is short, folks. Make sure that you have some time every day to just enjoy it.

Aloha!

M&G

Nearly there...

Goofy and I are taking a Rescue Diver course.

It's a third major certification on our way to Master Scuba Diver (which we should finish up in the next month or so).

Rescue Diver is a good course for any diver to take. It's all about being able to take care of yourself and others before you (or they) get into trouble. Kind of a good way to look at a lot of things in life really.

It also teaches us how to help people that have managed to get into trouble in spite of their best intentions.

We have learned to calm folks that are just over-stressed and need some reassurance and maybe a helping hand. But if things go really wrong, we have learned and practiced how to bring them up from the bottom and start rescue breaths on the way in to shore. We can even get them out of the water and start CPR while waiting for help to arrive. Mostly, though, we expect that we'll be able to spot trouble and do things to make it go away before it escalates into a full blown "situation".

We have finished with the practice sessions in the pool, have done all the reading, reviews and passed the final written exam.

Just one more thing remains...and it's happening in Puget Sound this weekend...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The best we can hope for is 54 degrees in that murky grey water of our home. It'll likely be closer to 44 degrees this time of year, though.

The practical part of the certification will have us rescuing and being rescued by our classmates in different scenarios to test our new skills. We'll deal with "tired" divers, "panicked" divers, "unresponsive" divers (both on the surface and at the bottom). We'll tow each other in, and haul each other out of the water onto the beach.

We'll have someone on the beach letting people know that we are just practicing our rescue skills..we don't really need help or paramedics (hopefully :).

We'll be cold, and we'll have fun, and we'll all learn more about ourselves and our friends. I can't wait!

It's said that if you can complete Rescue Diver in Puget Sound, you can rescue anyone anywhere. I don't know about that, but I do know that once it's done, and I'm all finished and certified, I'm going to go somewhere WARM to celebrate! LOL

Think sunshine this weekend!

M&G

....more on the SNOW! FUN HAVING!!! :)

Here are a few more shots of the snow as I ventured out this morning (well...as far as the street anyway :)





These are some of the trees along the west side...Note the lack of any blue sky any longer...really went from kinda clearing with a few patches of blue peeking through, to grey, grey, and darker grey.



View of the house from the north driveway...



The house from the south driveway...




Out on the street looking to the north...


It's an awesome day...the snow crunching underfoot, animal tracks in the snow, neat! Magic is having some fun now!

M&G

Snow!

Hey Y'all!

It's snowing in Seattle again. Actually snowing at sea level.

Goofy and I are NOT at sea level, however, and have a bunch of snow this morning...about 6" so far :)

It's continuing to snow on and off this morning, and they are forecasting more heavy snow this evening...Goofy does the dance of snow joy at this news.



The trees in the front...



A view in the backyard...




A closeup of a branch near the front deck....



Enjoy your day!

M&G

Another Winter's Day View

Okay....

I know that the pic isn't the best, but it's cold, and I don't want to go take a photo myself (although I might later on :)

This pic is from a webcam in Bellevue looking west across Lake Washington toward Seattle and the Olympic mountains.

Lovely, isn't it?

As always,

M&G

It Is COLD!

Wow....it's cold here.

This morning, it was 21 degrees when we headed out in the world.

It didn't get much warmer all day. I think that the high was somewhere in the low 40's, but it was still cold.

C O L D

We, in Seattle are kinda ok with _some_ cold. You know...35 or 40 degrees (when it hits 55, it's shorts weather, baby). This, of course, includes any wind chill factor. :)

Colder than that belongs in the mountains, where we can travel to if we'd like cold and snow, not here where we live (lol).

And it's ok if it's cold(ish) at night (33 or so is fine).

But...it's been in the teens and low twenties over nights the last few days.

We've had really clear skies though, and lots of sunshine, so we got outside anyway...in our heavy coats, and hats, and gloves and boots...and sunglasses...to bask in the sun.

It's been beautiful. Day and night. The sky is so clear tonight that you can actually see a lot of stars.

I went looking for a good pic online to share the idea of cold Seattle...something that really conveyed COLD. I wanted you to feel the cold through the computer screen.

What I came across is this webshot tonight from the Seattle Times building downtown.

It looks kinda dark and starry (even though that's not what you are looking at).

It looks kinda cold, too.

I just like looking at it. Maybe you will too.

There's more there than you can see at first...a good contemplator. Double click it and see what you can find.

There's so much bad stuff going on in the world - death, lies, war (not just ours)...overwhelming, really, at times.

Maybe that's why I like looking into the dark Seattle night, trying to make out what is there in the shadows, and not really caring if I do.

Hope you are all in safe warm places tonight.

M&G

The Road MOST Travelled

Here's a little photo essay/slideshow courtesy of my iPhone camera and iPhoto (shameless Apple plug...lol ;).

I often have time to sit and enjoy the scenery whilst heading on downtown of an afternoon (or two)...this time I decided to play a bit while I was stuck in traffic.

Just a whim, really, but fun too...enjoy!