A Hawaiian-Style Volcano on Io New images from Galileo reveal unexpected details of the Prometheus volcano on Io including a caldera and lava flowing through fields of sulfur dioxide snow. November 5, 1999: A volcanic crater several times larger than one found at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been photographed on Jupiter's moon Io during a close flyby performed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. "It appears that the Prometheus volcano on Io has characteristics remarkably similar to those of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, although Prometheus is much larger," said Dr. Laszlo Keszthelyi (KEST-ay), a Galileo research associate at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. "Both volcanoes are long- lived eruptions, with flows that apparently travel through lava tubes and produce plumes when they interact with cooler materials."

For the above photo, the caption: Right: This is a high-resolution image of part of Prometheus, an active volcano on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. In earlier, lower resolution images, it appeared that all the dark material at Prometheus comprised a single, long lava flow. The new image shows for the first time that the northeastern end of this dark feature is actually a lava-filled caldera 28 kilometers (17 miles) long and 14 kilometers (9 mile s) wide. The underground source of the Prometheus lava is probably beneath this newly discovered caldera. Galileo scientists are intrigued also by the snowfield containing hummocks, seen to the east of the Prometheus caldera.

LEONID METEOR SHOWER Leonids in the Crystal Ball -- On the morning of November 18, 1999, bits and pieces of periodic comet Tempel-Tuttle will hurtle into Earth's atmosphere at a head-spinning 158,000 mph. There is little danger - few of the meteoroids will reach the ground. Most will disintegrate and in the process produce a streak of light in the sky called a meteor. The meteors caused by debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle are known as Leonids because they appear to come from the direction of the constellation Leo. Most years the November Leonids aren't much to write home about. Observers see no more than 10 to 15 meteors per hour. But every 33 years something special happens. Comet Tempel-Tuttle swings through the inner solar system bringing with it an especially dense cloud of debris. The last time this happened was in January 1998, and the November 1998 Leonids were spectacular. Experts think that this year's Leonids be even better, with peak rates greater than 1000 shooting stars every hour. The place to be on November 18, 1999 is certainly outside and looking up! For the next two weeks, Thursday's Classroom will present lesson plans about meteor showers and the Leonids. We'll also be inviting kids to participate in real NASA research by counting meteors. http://www.thursdaysclassroom.com/index_28oct99.html

The last time a "star shower" was predicted everybody in and around Lisbon went out of town to watch the skies. They were in for a big time disappointment. That was more than three years ago but I'm not sure when (I still lived in my old apartment and stayed up late to watch from my window). So now the papers are being very cautious about the Leonids. They say it "might" be worthwhile to watch for them ;-)

Meteors and comets are such difficult things to predict. No one knows what has happened since the last swing around the sun, and sometimes, they just disappear into the sun and are never seen again. Maggie just sent this URL for Live Cam broadcast of the Leonids http://www.live-leonids.org/en/live.html

The Broadcast begins in 10 minutes - at 5 pm Austin time.

we're supposed to see some of a meteor shower tonight at 8 central time. i had just about forgotten!

Now you know! Put a sticky-note on the bridge of your nose so you do not forget *grin*

As I interpret the information: The Tempel-Tuttle comet comes by every November. Every 33 years it comes close enough to break into our atmosphere. It permanently fires off meteoroids everywhere it goes all the time. Is that right? Would it be orbiting around the sun? I am such a dunce astronomically - someone hold my hand.

This is correct. Anything orbiting in the solar system ultimately orbits the sun. It is a periodic comet which means it has returned at predictable times since its initial discovery. Haley's Comet is the most famous of these return visitors with a period of 75 years. On occasion Comets slam into the sun as their orbits decay and the sun's gravity draws them into itself. All that is left of the Temple-Tuttle Comet is meteor showers which follow the former comet's orbital path. Eventually, they too wi l fall victim to gravity and be no more.

(Since you are not using your hand for Cricket at this time of the year, I would be delighted to hold it, astronomically and virtually!)

Wasted getting up at 2 a.m. skies cloudy couldn't see anything. Am I right in that the leonids are an annual event associated with the temple-tuttle comet? Is it possible there will be further showers tonight? We do have a clear sky now - typical!

Yes, there will be more tonight...but supposedly last night was the best viewing. I had the same result as you did in the middle of the night. Clouds! (Hot and sunny here, as well!) I plan to look tonight again...hope springs eternal and all that...!

On Response 11 to MarkG I noted that it was debris from the Temple-Tuttle comet.

Please check Geo 15.26 and 15.27...the volcanoes on Io are shown in photographs and the caption which goes with them are there. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/Geo/15.26

i sat out for 20 minutes and saw one flare through the sky. i was lucky to see that one because there weren't anymore visible from my backyard.

Somewhere they counted 5,000 per hour. Bummer! I saw none, of course. All that blessing and dust control which makes our orchids so lovely obscures my skies most nights. Good for you to see that one! Did your kiddies see it, as well?

Friday, December 3 NASA and its various websites listed below will carry live from Mars the Polar Lander beamed to Earth from 157 million miles away. The sites will contain weather reports, science data, first sound clips ever beamed to Earth from "out there" and lots of pictures. Main Mars site will post the latest pictures and updates throughout the 90-day mission: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 JPL's main page has links to the latest Mars project as well as to probes sent to other planets over the last 20 years: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov JPL's Mars Educational site which includes activites for children and teachers: http://marsnt3.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.html UCLA, where the primary science team is based, offers a site focusing on the experiments aboard the Mars Volitiles and Climate Surveyor payload. http://mars.ucla.edu

The first link (jpl.nasa.gov/msp98) does not work...try http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98 or http://marslander.jpl.nasa.gov

Got through to the site OK. Pictures taking a while to download. Will check back again tomorrow as it's getting late here. Looks exciting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Marcia!!

Tomorrow will be early enough...JPL are having problems contacting the little dear now that it is on the surface. There are just so few windows of opportunity when Mars is accessible from Earth, and most of those have been used for today. Tomorrow will be a good time to check. It will be slow-going until the weekend begins because all of the schools in America as well as the rest of the world are trying to access the sites, too. It is difficult to be patient...

Friday - 18:54 12/03/99, EST Mars Lander Misses First Communications Chance PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - Scientists plotting the planned touchdown of the Mars Polar Lander were met with a frustrating silence on Friday after failing to receive the first expected signal from the spacecraft that would indicate that it had landed safely on the Martian surface. Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena scanned the skies for contact from the lander, which had been due at roughly 12:39 p.m. PST (3:39 p.m. EST), or 24 minutes after its scheduled landing on Mars. After about 20 minutes, however, flight operations manager Sam Thurman told engineers to take a break and wait for the next possible communications window, expected after 2:04 p.m. PST (5:04 p.m. EST). Scientists speculated that the spacecraft may have gone into a ``safe'' mode and had not deployed its main antenna properly after landing. They said another possibility was that it was transmitting, but on an unknown frequency that would take NASA's Deep Space Network of worldwide listening posts some time to locate. If everything had gone according to plan, the lander would have deployed its main antenna and started sending back communications to Earth, informing controllers that it had started its mission to search Mars for signs of water and other information about its climate. Scientists long had cautioned that it was very possible that no communications link would be established during the first window of opportunity, and said there were numerous chances later on Friday and over the rest of the weekend for the lander to open communications links with Earth.

Now seems a bit dismal. News at teatime (GMT) was that todays window had passed and hope was fading. Nice pictures on the site though!

Still No Sign of Life From Mars Lander PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - Space controllers on Sunday failed for a fifth time in 48 hours to make contact with the Mars Polar Lander since it arrived on the Red Planet, causing bitter disappointment among the scientists and raising fears about the mission. ``I'm not pessimistic. But I'm disappointed. I feel like I've been stood up on a date. This is not a good thing,'' Dave Crisp, a mission scientist, told reporters minutes after the latest attempt failed. The $165 million lander was supposed to use its Ultra High Frequency antenna to make contact with the Mars Global Surveyor satellite orbiting the planet during a brief, six-minute communications window, but it remained silent, as it has since Friday, when it was scheduled to land on Mars at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT). The window of opportunity stretched from 10:50 a.m. PST (1:50 p.m. EST/1850 GMT) to 10:56 a.m., but because it takes 15 minutes for a signal to travel the 145 million miles (232 million km) from Mars to Earth, it was about 11:15 a.m. before anxious scientists knew their latest attempt had failed. It was the first time they had tried to get the craft to use its UHF antenna, which is not powerful enough to communicate directly with Earth but is capable of sending a stream of data to the orbiting surveyor for relay to Earth. The hope had been that if the craft's main antenna, which scientists had been using for previous attempts to get in touch with the lander, had failed for some reason, then the UHF might succeed as a backup. A NASA official at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said the latest failure eliminated the possibility that the craft was in a normal operating mode. He said the spacecraft may have landed in a pit and that there were objects blocking the antenna's view of Earth or the surveyor satellite, or it might be unable to perform gyro compassing to determine its geographical location at Mars' south pole, he said.

Cosidering how lame the excuses for the loss of the last Mars Probe were, it would behoove NASA and JPL to get their acts together lest the tax-payers get really unhappy and cut off their allotment!

This year will be the first full Moon to occur on the winter solstice, Dec.22 (commonly called the first day of winter) in about 100 years. Since a full Moon on the winter solstice occurred in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the Moon's orbit that is closest to Earth) the Moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in its elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). And since the Earth is also several million miles closer to the Sun at this time of the year than in the summer, sunlight striking the Moon is about 7% stronger making it brighter. Also, this will be the closest perigee of the Moon this year since the Moon's orbit is constantly deforming. If the weather is clear and there is snow cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be superfluous. On December 21, 1866, the Lakota Sioux took advantage of this combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on soldiers in the Wyoming Territory. In laymen's terms it will be a super bright full Moon, much more than the usual AND it hasn't happened this way for 133 years! Our ancestors, 133 years ago, saw this. Our descendants 100 or so years from now will see this again. I hope someone else might find this interesting! Remember this will happen December 22, 1999.....

The Space Suttle is back in orbit. Lucie watched the blast off from her home: The shuttle launch was spectacular tonight, I just walk down to the end of my stree and look to the east across the lake and watch it light up the sky and the lake. It's relly beautiful to see. One time the atomspheric condition were just right and about four or five minutes after it went and we were still watching it streak across the sky we heard a rumble, rumble, rumble and the ground started to shake just like it does when you are there. Ilike the night launches because it is so beautiful. The day ones we can see it but son't get the color. The best thing about that night was a 10 year old girl was visiting her grandparents and she had to write a paper about what she saw when she was here. It was a part of the conditions for her getting out of school to come. She thought it was totaly awesome, but then so did I. In all these years of watching them that is the only time it happened.

closing my italics Here is the Nasa live TV URL http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/missions/index.html

For a truly unique way of looking at Earth check: http://www.discovery.com/cams/planet/planet.html

Looking forward to the close & bright full moon tomorrow night (and I will be flying, so a fraction closer still). Is the fact that it coincides with the winter solstice relevant, or does that just give us the longest night in which to see it? - oh hang on, just worked it out, this brings the sun as near as possible to brighten the moon. I was thinking how odd that the sun should be nearest the Earth in midwinter (when it's coldest), but of course that's why it's midsummer (& hottest) in the Southern He isphere, I suppose.

Bravo. Your line of reasoning is right-on. I checked the moon just before daylight as it was streaming into my room this morning and it was brilliant. I think one could have read the newspaper by it - or at least the headlines! One tends to forget about the tip of the earth out of plumb which makes these unusual circumstances more fascinating. Pop over to Stonehenge and check the shadows falling over the stones and sight between them. I really wish this were possible for you as I would love a live r port...almost as much as I would like to be doing the live reporting! Happy Solstice Day, Mark!

Sorry I cannot make it to Stonehenge. Even if I could, the stones are now sealed off from the public, and come the solstice you have to brave the hippies New Age Travelers trying to commune spiritually with the Ancient Druids. But maybe my plane will fly over Salisbury Plain, and I'll try and sneak a peek at the moon shadows!

How lovely that would be - flying over Stonehenge in the moonlight. *sigh* I agree entirely with you about the hippie ersatz druids reinventing themselves as they go. Makes the archaeologist and historian in my soul revolt. Another eye-witness of the shuttle launch: "Had a beautiful sight a few nights ago. The TV had the shuttle going up on the split screen, so we ran out. Off to the southeast the sky was turning orangish and getting brighter. Then we could see the torch like flame coming up . We watched the shuttle go on up, and the separation of the boosters and two red dots as they fell back down. Then it just went on up and turned into like a star, it was really bright. We had an exceptional clear night and they said we could see it for about 18 minutes to the curvature of the earth. we went back in the house and then we heard the thunder and rumble of the noise just reaching us. and the windows quivered enough that we could hear them rattle. Must have headed more north instead of south like before. But it was neat, hope to go down sometime and see one."

I was told about the solstice moon but unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating... I'm afraid we're gonna have another New Year's Eve storm :-(

Does this involve bone-chilling dampness and driving rain or do things get cold enough to freeze? I am worried about you and these storms.

Only rain and strong winds... But maybe we'll have better weather for friday.

We gotta stop talking about this out here in other topics...they are worried about you in Geo 14! Did the strong winds do any serious pruning of your trees or your electrical/phone system?

anyone who watched the world-wide pollution extravaganza yesterday under the guise of celebratory fireworks must wonder how long it will circle the earth before it falls as something really nasty...!

This probably belongs on an astronomy topic, but I didn't see one when I looked at the list of conferences, so here it is. My question is about the age of the universe/earth. The universe is currently estimated to be about 13 billion years old. In that time, stars and galaxies have formed, gone through their life cycles, died, gathered back together as nebulae, then created second and maybe third generation systems. Assuming the earth is only a second generation conglomeration of matter, then all of the heavier elements on the earth came from the first generation. Now the earth is estimated to be already about 4 billion years old. That leaves only 9 billion years--or only twice the time the earth has been around--for that first generation to have lived and died and given rise to the second generation. That doesn't seem like enough time to me! Am I missing something? Were life cycles nebulae and galaxies faster in the early universe? If not, how does the creation of the heavier elements work into the current assumptions on the age of the universe? And is this taken into account when people estimate the age of the universe? I would think that any theory which did not allow enough time for at least one cycle to complete itself would be rejected on that basis alone. If there isn't time, then the age can not be right. And can we estimate the age of the universe by estimating the length of time it takes for one cycle.

You found us! Guess I should paste my message here as well as the sunspot gif I think our estimation of the age of the universe will continue to be revised upward as we get bigger and better eyes into the past. For just about forever the age of the Universe was thought not to exceed 5 billion years and wa more likely 4 billion. Theories are just that...always subject to revision and correction, fortunately! This Solar image updates automatically:

that solar deal is neato. it makes me think of an egg yolk when you shine a flashlight through the egg.

Yup! did you see it pulsate? Makes you think your eyes are doing funny things to your mind...

From John Burnett Findings from a new study provide strong support for one of two diametrically opposed theories explaining why people perceive the moon on the horizon as much larger than the elevated moon, a phenomenon known as the moon illusion. The human ability to perceive an object's size accurately regardless of its distance, known as "size constancy," reflects an innate understanding of the inverse proportion between distance and size of the image projected on our retinas. According to the older of the two general explanations for the moon illusion, we see the horizon moon as bigger because the information presented by the intervening terrain affects our perception of distance, so our brains respond as if the moon were closer. Proponents of more recent explanations for the moon illusion argue that perception of distance follows from perception of size. They contend that certain factors cause us to perceive the elevated moon as smaller than the horizon moon and that this illusory size difference, in turn, leads to the perception that the elevated moon is farther away. In an effort to determine whether people perceive the horizon moon as closer or farther away than the elevated moon, a father-son team of scientists from New York University and IBM's Almaden Research Center conducted experiments involving artificial moons projected onto the actual sky using optics and a computer display. In the article, they report that people perceive the halfway point between themselves and artificial horizon moons to be more than four times farther away than the halfway point between themselves and artificial elevated moons. They also show that people perceive an artificial moon of constant size to be smaller when it is moved closer, in keeping with the older theory of the moon illusion.

Original Caption Released with Image: This mosaic of images collected by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on Thanksgiving Day, November 25,1999 shows a fountain of lava spewing above the surface of Jupiter's moon Io. The active lava was hot enough to cause what the camera team describes as "bleeding" in Galileo's camera, caused when the camera's detector is so overloaded by the brightness of the target that electrons spill down across the detector. This shows up as a white blur in the image. Most of the hot material is distributed along a wavy line which is interpreted to be hot lava shooting more than 1.5 kilometers- (1-mile) high out of a long crack, or fissure, on the surface. There also appear to be additional hot areas below this line, suggesting that hot lava is flowing away from the fissure. Initial estimates of the lava temperature indicate that it is well above 1,000 Kelvin (1,300 Fahrenheit) and might even be hotter than 1,600 Kelvin (2,400 Fahrenheit). These images were targeted to provide the first close-up view of a chain of huge calderas (large volcanic collapse pits). These calderas are some of the largest on Io and they dwarf other calderas across the solar system. At 290 by 100 kilometers (180 by 60 miles), this chain of calderas covers an area seven times larger than the largest caldera on the Earth. The new images show the complex nature of this giant caldera on Io, with smaller collapses occurring within the elongated caldera. Also of great interest is the flat-topped mesa on the right. The scalloped margins are typical of a process geologists call "sapping," which occurs when erosion is caused by a fluid escaping from the base of a cliff. On Earth, such sapping features are caused by springs of groundwater. Similar features on Mars are one of the key pieces of evidence for past water on the Martian surface. However, on Io, the liquid is presumed to be pressurized sulfur dioxide. The liquid sulfur dioxide should change to a gas almost instantaneously upon reaching the near-vacuum of Io's surface, blasting away material at the base of the cliff. The sulfur dioxide gas eventually freezes out on the surface of Io in the form of a frost. As the frost is buried by later deposits, it can be heated and pressurized until it becomes a liquid. This liquid then flows out of the ground, completing Io's version of the 'water cycle.' North is to the upper left of the picture and the Sun illuminates the surface from the lower left. The image, centered at 61.1 degrees latitude and 119.4 degrees longitude, covers an area approximately 300 by 75 kilometers (190-by-47 miles). The resolution is 185 meters (610 feet) per picture element. The image was taken at a range of 17,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) by Galileo's onboard camera. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/io/ioimages.html.

Wow! There was something on the BBC Open University about a Lunar eclipse coming up. V. interesting programme but at 1 am. my attention slips. Didn't catch the date or whether it was only applicable to the UK.

I shall look it up and post what I find. It will be at new moon, of course.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/AA/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html This page has an eclipse calaulator. I put in my residence for The January 21st lunar eclipse and got the following: Total Eclipse of the Moon HILO, HAWAII o ' o ' W155 05, N19 43 Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time Moon's Azimuth Altitude h m o o Moonrise 2000 Jan 20 18:01 69.0 ---- Moon enters totality 2000 Jan 20 18:04.6 69.3 0.5 Middle of eclipse 2000 Jan 20 18:43.5 72.2 8.4 Moon leaves totality 2000 Jan 20 19:22.3 74.8 16.8 Moon leaves umbra 2000 Jan 20 20:25.4 78.5 30.7 Moon leaves penumbra 2000 Jan 20 21:24.1 81.6 43.8 Moonset 2000 Jan 21 07:29 289.7 ----

I gather that what will be seen is a darkened moon, possibly reddish colour.

Yes, I think so, but since it is close to perigee (last month) it should look very close! BTW, that Jan 21 date was by GMT or Zulu time which is midnight in London (Greenwich, actually) which happens at 2pm here in Hawaii. You need to check that calculator and see what time it happens for you where you live. According to the 1806 Jan 20 entering totality will be the day before the baseball game, alas! But better it rain out the eclipse than the ballgame!

What we see of the moon during an eclipse is the reflected light of the Earth. It is also a function of how close Earth is to the Sun. It should be pretty bright and orange because I think we are close to perihelion, as well.

I wonder if that'd be filmeable with the low-sensitivity Super 8 films I use.... Yeah, we read about that in the paper a few weeks ago. Gonna try get pictures (like I tried of the Hale-Bopp comet - uh, like in "Hail the Bop Apocalyse", have the Heaven Gates folks had read too much Ginsberg? - and the sun-thingus-what-was-the-word-for -it before). Gonna see what I'll do.

Watching old Super 8 movies from the early 70ies, I found that my father had already filmed a solar eclipse (that the word!). Oh, now it starts to snow... And I got a radio show to do in Frankfurt tonight! Darn, hope driving is good, I still need much time to prepare, and always leave five minutes after last minute...

Did anyone see a report about a black hole being discovered 'near' earth - I think 160,000 light years away. Report said it was the size of 30 million of our suns, but the gravitational pull was puzzlingly lower than expected. Report came from Washington, so I expect there's more info in US than the UK. Excuse me for being stupid - how do I work out my location to use the table on the site you quoted Marcia. What's the radio show Alexander?

What's the radio show and when're you gonna get a tape of it to Terry so we can see you on SpringCam? The eclipse should en easily photographable if you have timed photography available on your camera. Open the lens as wide as it will go and leave for 30 sec. then one minute then 45 sec....bracket it well and you should have no trouble. Perhaps, if the Moon is unusually dark you may have to leave the shutter open for a few minutes or more.

As to how to find out your location on that eclipse calculator, I just put Hilo, HI, USA.... You use Outer Gronkster, Thistleberry, England or whatever..

Oh I didn't realise it was that easy - I thought I had to put coordinates in!!!

Whoops! non-US form is different. It does require degrees north etc. I'll have to get the atlas out to find out where I am!!!

Whip out the Ordnance Survey maps. I have their atlas if you are having trouble locating yourself with co-ordinates. Just tell me where you are (town wise) and I will go "down the hall and up the stairs" for you!

Thank you. High Wycombe, Bucks, England

(Radio: my monthly appearance as part of the weekly "superstar rotation" show, 2 hours on Frankfurt's Radio X - this one was titled "Respect For Joe Strummer" to honour a great songwriter and creative muscian; we played material from his London '77 band The Clash to his Nov. 99 release with his new band)

Fantastic, Alexander! You are not on the Internet as yet, is that correct? I would listen to you read the phone book in a language I do not understand just to listen to your Teutonic/Brit accent. Maggie, High Wyckcombe is 21� North latitude, and 4.85� West longitude if I am reading this correctly!

Let's give High Wycombe another try. 51.5 North Latitude and 0.28 West longitude.

Thanks, let's hope it's not another cloudy night like last time!!!

I just saw in the paper that iceballs the size of melons have been landing in Spain. I think 11 have landed so far. Various theories have been put forward as to their origin. The main contender seems to be that it is comet debris, although pranksters have not been ruled out. It is curious that no iceballs have landed in France or Portugal, just Spain.

Lunar Eclipses always happen during FULL moon. I somehow got it messed up with a solar eclipse which does happen during new moon. I stated the opposite on response 47, proving once again that I am not only mortal, but that I should be held accountable for my information. I welcome corrections and clarifying at all times! For those of you living in the Florida area and especially, Tallahassee, and happen to be FSU fans / alums, this is for you (Thanks, Barbara!) It also contains good information on why the moon is different colors from eclipse to eclipse. From: http://www.tdo.com/news/local/0119.loc.lunar.htm Lunar eclipse to pass through on Thursday night Tallahassee's weather is predicted to be ideal for viewing the eclipse, the last until 2003. By GERALD ENSLEY Tallahassee Democrat Grab your coat and crank up the Pink Floyd: We're all going to see a dark side of the moon Thursday when a total lunar eclipse will be visible all over North and South America. The eclipse will begin at 9:03 p.m. Thursday and reach its darkest phase between 11:05 p.m. and 12:22 a.m. Friday. This is the first total lunar eclipse visible in the United States since September 1997 -- and the last we'll see again until May 2003. The weather in Tallahassee should be ideal, if nippy, for eclipse-viewing. A cold front moving through North Florida is expected to clear out by Thursday afternoon. Forecasters at the National Weather Service said temperatures will be in the 40s Thursday night, and it will feel colder because of a steady breeze. But the sky will be clear. The event is being billed as one of the most spectacular lunar eclipses in a decade. The shadow on the moon is expected to be deep orange-red in color -- much like a sunset. The shadow is also expected to be the most sharply visible for a lunar eclipse since 1991, when an erupting volcano in the Philippines (Mt. Pinatubo) saturated the Earth's atmosphere with a film of ash and dust. A lunar eclipse is when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon in such a way as to cast the Earth's shadow across the lunar face. A solar eclipse, which is more infrequent, occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth in such a way as to block the sun's light to the Earth. The shadow the Earth casts on the moon is called the "umbra." The thin ring of light around the shadow is called the "penumbra." The Tallahassee Astronomical Society will host a viewing at Lake Ella. The group will set up telescopes, and members of the club will be available to discuss the eclipse and other heavenly bodies. During an eclipse, many faintly seen stars and planets become more visible. Gerald Ensley has been with the Tallahassee Democrat since 1980. A former sportswriter, he is now a general assignment reporter and columnist. He has won more than 20 state and national awards for his writing.

Maggie, I saw the bowling-ball-sized hailstones on the Television news this morning and was astounded. They are HUGE!!! I will post the lab reports when they become available.

i still haven't seen those. it'll be interesting once they figure out what's going on. makes me think of the crop circles. ooooh, i should include this stuff in paraspring.

here's an article on the melon-sized iceballs: Comet Debris, Not Excrement, Rains on Spain MADRID (Reuters) - At least ten melon-sized ice balls that have slammed into Spain in the last week are probably debris from comets, not human excrement as first suspected, a Spanish scientist said Monday. Enrique Martinez, head of a team at the Higher Council of Scientific Investigation studying the phenomenon, said it was first thought that the ice balls were human excrement ejected from high-flying aircraft. ``But they lack the typical coloring and texture we find in those cases,'' he said. A man in southern Spain escaped injury last week when an ice ball eight inches across weighing nine pounds smashed into his car. A further nine ice balls have since been reported around Spain over the last week. human excrement? geeze louise. too bad they didn't have any pictures!

wait, did you see that? "they lack the typical coloring and texture we find in those [human excrement from aircraft] cases." gross!!!!

Yup! Those aircrafty objects often drop *stuff* out, but it is usually that bluish-green disinfectant color. These look like snowballs or hailstones (which I am sure they are - NOT human stuff). Thanks for posting the article. Those were the ones they showed on the telly this morning!

Some scientists seemed to think they might be from a meteor but as another pointed out this couldn't be because the heat of the meteor hitting the earths atmosphere would melt any ice.

quite true. check out a pic i found while searching the news sites:

Yes....they are very large hailstones, I am sure. How they got that big will be interesting to learn. No go outside and look at the moon! It is cloudy here...really cloudy!!!

Wolfie!! You did it!!! Brava, my dear. *H U G S * wow!!! Thanks oodles and wads for that. How amazing!!!

oh, and the lunar eclipse is quite underway. i've tried to get pictures of it at each interval as it enters into totality. fifteen minutes more to go. (am using a regular minolta 35mm so don't expect anything news worthy, but am trying)

the scientist with his hand on his head looking at this thing is classic!

It really is red, very beautiful. This must be what the ancients saw when the said there ws blood on the moon. I have seen many lunar eclipses but none like this

Wow!~!! Red! Nrevedr seen a red one...does the moon look like it is suspended between the stars and the earth? It looks more like a sphere during totality than at any other time. Lovely of you to keep me posted! Yeah, I loved that guy in the lab coat with his hand on his head. Wolfie, I downloaded it to my files in case you ever need it,

The lunar eclipse was "snowed out" where I am. I'd love to see your pictures, Wolf. I got some pictures of the Sept. 26, 1996 lunar eclipse, which can be seen at http://world.std.com/~vbrown/p_le96.htm. I also use Minolta 35mm cameras (XG-M and SRT-101); you can still get some good shots with 'em! I think the most important tools for astrophotography are a sturdy tripod, and decent lenses.

Myh son in California with his digital camera came through! Lovely pix and very red!!! Yippee!!!

Ginny! Welcome! How exciting to have a second IRL person posting on Geo. I am so delighted with your eclipse pictures - one which was unavailable out here. It seems you were about the only one I was in contact with who had success. Portugal and Germany both had problems. You have one of the best lenses it would appear and a good sturdy tripod to keep your images sharp. Mahalo! Visit frequently!

As soon as my FTP works to Spring's hard drive I will post the pictures David took from California. Spectacular! Never saw a red moon - ever! If anyone MUST see them before Terry gets the tarballs back where they belong, I will email some to you...let me know!

When asked what camera he was using, my son reeplied with the following: It is a Nikon Coolpix 950 with a x2 telephoto lens which makes my 35 mm equivalent of 200 mm. Now you know. Thanks for the bragging. As soon as I can ftp to access.spring.net we can all see them!

Can't wait, Marcia. Clouds obscured the view here in London - and of course today is cloudless, just like the night before was cloudless ... #@�X#�&!!

Thanks, Marcia! I use a 500mm f8 mirror lens with my old Minolta SRT-101 for all my astrophotography pictures. I generally use high-speed color film (800 ASA and 1600 ASA). Dave's pictures from the digital camera came out great! It seems like the digital cameras are really improving. I also have solar eclipse pictures from 1994 and 1998, and comet pictures up on the same web site. (http://world.std.com/~vbrown under the "Photo Gallery" link)

marcia, e the pics to me and i'll store them at geocities until ftp is up and running again!

Splendid, Ginny. It is so great to see your posts in here. One day I will take you to my Arthuriana Topic in the Books Conference... Will get to your other eclipse pix shortly...happy me!!! Mark, Your sentiments echo mine. Bad enough it was cloudy - but it rained hard enough to make listening to myself think just about impossible. Now, please get it over with before this weekend's baseball games, thank you! As soon as all of the hard drives for Spring are in place in their new homes and I again have access to them, I shall be ftp'ing my son's great photos and posting them for your perusal. Until then all I can do is to hold them up to the monitor....*sigh*

THanks, Wolfie, they will be on their way shortly!!!

I am happy to report that the eclipse was gorgeous in Tallahassee; very clear and when it started, the moon was huge! As the article that our gracious host posted said, there was a gathering at Lake Ella (an artificial, small lake a few miles from where I live), but the night was very cold and the sky was so clear that I only had to step out into our balcony to get a wonderful view. I alternated the eclipse with the Pakistan/India cricket match (Pak won!), so it was an eventful night. I went to bed past m dnight, and it was still on. The red shadow was spectacular and the view of the nightsky something to remember.

How spectacular. I was also listening to the cricket match (congrats, Pak!) The only thing better than my seeing an eclipse is for others to see it and post their comments. Thanks, Lidya... It must have been a chicken-skin experience. The best ones seem to be in a sparkly clear and cold night sky! Thanks, Dear! Now, to send Wolfie David's pix so I can post them...

Looking forward to seeing the pix as we had a cloudy sky in High Wycombe (England).

Yup! Guess if Mark was overcast you were, as well. They will be up ASAP...

I didn't get to see anything - overcast and cloudy. Bah! Wolf, you are my only hope to get to see this. (Radio: No, Radio X doesn't webcast yet. No budget - it's a members-club broadcaster working of membership dues and donations only. No commercial aspects, no/few public fundings. Crap equipment. Great spirit.)

From Moon Dreams: I saw the whole eclipse! It was beautiful! We had a perfect cool clear night, not one cloud in the sky. I used my binoculars for the details. From white to grey and then the orangy/red border appeared until it was completely covered by it. With the naked eye it looked as if it were Jupiter. Those red moon rays have done their magic on me. In Dec. we had the closest moon to earth in years I was in Milan and it was also a clear crisp night. In Aug. I was in Lake Como during the solar eclipse and that was a bad experience. We all felt dizzy and were affected in a negative way. The lunar eclipse was the complete opposite. :-D I heard from my friends in London who got up at 3:45am to watch it but the sky was completely covered with the usual stark grey clouds and did not see a thing. I am still moondancing!

the eclipse was indeed beautiful. it was cold and our part of the sky was clear as a bell and i think i was able to discern more stars than usual. my pictures stunk (had them developed today). i went out with my binoculars and got a lens full of red moon. now to david's pics!

the above is my fave!

It was so beautiful, red, red with a halo of light.