Sun, Moon & Diamonds

EYES ON SKIES: We had lovely weather all weekend, and it spilled over into Monday, hooray! We took the opportunity to wash all three of our cars this morning. While out in the alley working, I looked up at one point and noticed a big, thin ring around the sun.

"Look! Look!" I cried, running in the house to get the kids and grab the camera.  After we checked it out (carefully, as staring into the sun isn't the best idea, and my cameras didn't like it, either), we went back in the house to use the Internet to find out what we'd just seen.  "Our" ring was so big, I couldn't fit the whole thing in my camera's field of view.

Turns out it's called aptly named a halo. (There are also moon halos.) I asked the kids to do a little research, and find out how halos are formed.

I ended up reading an article about them on the EarthSky Web site. Turns out the halos can form when thin cirrus clouds are overhead. The clouds have millions of tiny ice crystals, and light is both refracted and reflected by them. In order for the halo to be visible, these crystals have to be positioned just right with respect to your eye. 

For whatever reason, I unfortunately started reading the comments on the article. They quickly devolved into a ridiculous debate about religion after some woman posted, "Jesus said in Luke 21 pertaining to the end of the age that there will be signs in the sun the moon and the stars. We are seeing these things more then (sic) ever before."

Sigh. I wonder how the poster determined "we are seeing these things more then ever before." Of course, then people started chiming in from all angles on the topic. Way to run a science article, people. 

Anyway, reading some of the comments, I was inspired to suggest CJ and Annabelle take a stab at writing a folk take about how/why these halos formed. 

Annabelle's story ... 

   Once upon a time, there was an angel named Wraina, who helped in controlling rainbows and sometimes ice crystals. One day when Wraina was moving the ice crystals, she spread them near the sun. A rainbow simultaneously appeared. She moved the crystals away. The rainbow disappeared. She then moved the ice crystals in front of the sun again, and the halo reappeared. Now, Wraina will occasionally use the ice crystal to make a rainbow again and again.

CJ's story ...

There once was a wizard. If records were available from the time he wasn't anonymous, I would tell you his name. Hoping Sun Dogs couldn't get traced back to him, he destroyed every surviving record. Here's the story:

   There once was a wizard. Now, before you start thinking "Oh, he must be a good guy, right?", I'm here to tell you that he couldn't be any more selfish and attention-seeking; he constantly "warned" people that one day, the apocalypse would come, and the primary signs would be that the sun would get a halo, and the moon would turn blood red, soon after, disappearing. Supposedly, the only way you could survive is if you believed in him.

   Several centuries later, by the time that this wizard was long dead,the only thing people remembered about him was what he said about the apocalypse. However, there did come a day in which the sun had a halo, and the moon turned blood red, disappearing soon after. People started to panic, pray, and perform strange (not to mention, politically incorrect) rituals. However, the apocalypse did not come, and people started getting confused. They eventually realized that the wizard was just looking for attention, and that there was nothing to worry about.

Moral number 1: don't make up lies just for attention.Moral number 2: don't believe in everything you hear.

SUNDAY FUN DAY: We spent a sunny Sunday afternoon at Safeco Field, enjoying the return of baseball. 

We spent some pre-game time out at the bullpen.

We had good seats - just nine rows from the field, up the first base line.

The sights and sounds of the ballpark were entertaining and colorful, as always.

We brought lots of snacks from home with us. CJ got a CJ catcher in his Cracker Jack.

Unfortunately, the Mariners (once again) couldn't put anything but zeros up on the board. 

After the game, we stopped for a light dinner at the very-fun-and-tasty Lunchbox Laboratory in the South Lake Union neighborhood. 

Afterward, we checked out the nearby P-Patch/community garden and playground.

On the playground, in the shadows of my paternal grandma's church, we found an angel bear. 

SCRUBBED: We were all set to watch a SpaceX launch this afternoon, but a couple hours before lift off, an anomaly was discovered, which meant a no go for today. The trouble was a helium leak in the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage.

A SpaceX spokesperson says they expect the issue to be fixed in time for a launch attempt Friday, but the weather outlook calls for marginal conditions then (there is a 60 percent chance weather will violate weather constraints for Friday's launch opportunity). Should conditions with the rocket and the weather be OK come Friday, the launch is expected to take place at 12:25 p.m. West Coast US time.

Guess Robonaut 2 is going to have to wait a few more days to get his legs!
                         Image Credit: NASA
The upper-body only robot 'lives' on the ISS. With working legs, R2 "will have the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside and outside the space station," per a NASA press release. Eventually, the goal is for the robotic crew member to take on mundane tasks, freeing the crew up to perform more critical work,

STUFFED: We had a little fun with dinner tonight. Last time we visited the family in Siletz, we were treated to stuffed burgers made with the help of a nifty little kitchen device. Incredibly, we happened across that same tool when we stopped at a Fry's store on the way home. 

I asked the kids what they wanted stuffed in their burgers. They replied "macaroni and cheese" in stereo.

So, made up a batch, smooshed the ground beef in the too, filled it up, and grilled it.

They were a hit! 

Christian and I had jalapeno rings, mini sweet peppers, and jalapeno cheese in our burger centers. 

Not exactly health food, I suppose. Do we get some kind of credit for having kale chips on the side, though?

LUNAR ECLIPSE: We've been watching the clouds come and go all day, hoping they are NOT around about midnight, during the total lunar eclipse. We'll have our alarms set and hope to see the blood moon. Fingers crossed. ... 

Image: JPL