SCIENCE! Planets, Moon, and Stars, OH MY!

Sunrise was at 6:37 am, sunset will be at 6:04 pm. Getting closer to equal daylight and nightlight. It's been great to see the sky still light in the west as late as 7 pm. I've been picking D up when he's finished at work and we've been walking home in the daylight, as the sun starts to go down. Happy happy happy to have more light in my days!

The night sky's been so amazing lately - have you had a chance to watch as Venus and Jupiter come closer and closer to each other? Soon, well, relatively soon anyway, there will be another crescent moon stacked under J and V and the Pleiades above all like a bunch of grapes. The skies have been so clear (except for today-this photo was taken just as the sun was going down, it's hazy, but the planets are so bright!) that the planets seem to pin the sky to the vault above.

The moon and Mars are putting on quite the show, too, tonight, just turn and look the other direction. They are going to appear to be quite close and Mars should be a pretty good size! You can go here for pictures and more information.

I wonder how the massive solar flares that occurred today will affect the electrical grid when they hit the earth tomorrow. Will we see aurorae? Will there be ripples of light across the night sky? I don't know if we'll notice anything tomorrow during the daylight except for power loss or static, but maybe we'll see some night sky action. Will birds be affected? Will the flares have some sort of magnetic field effect? I'll have to keep an eye on the cat, see if she notices anything that will make her act differently.

Ooh! Science!

This would be a good time to re-read Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker. I've been thinking about it all day. It isn't out yet, but you definitely need to put it on a list ASAP.

It's about a girl whose family is beginning to fall apart just as some sort of massive world event has slowed the rotation of the earth. It's been slowing for awhile but it's now obvious that the days and nights are getting longer. Julia's worried about it but not as worried as she is about getting a boyfriend or filling in her bra or her parents breaking up. Nobody's able to sleep because sometimes night-time isn't dark, school is sometimes in daylight, sometimes not, and the magnetic field is screwed up so birds have to walk to migrate, but life goes on even so. A brilliant book about being able to adapt to brutal times, especially if you're waiting for your first kiss.
(Random House. $26.00. May 20, 2012.)