Super Blue Blood Moon in northern California

I'm not sure why I woke up so early this morning, but I was up and reading various things on my smartphone and was reminded about today's eclipse of the moon. The eclipse was supposed to start not long after I was reading about it, and thinking that the maximum in my area was going to be at 4:51 am — which is actually when the total phase of the eclipse was going to start — I rushed outside with a headlamp and my phone to see if I'd be able to see it. While out there, I got the first photo, above, which is the moon looking like a tiny red ball. The time was 4:49 am.

Seeing how spectacular it all looked, I ran back inside and got my Nikon with its 18 to 200 mm lens and grabbed several shots while standing in snow and leaning against the camper in the front yard. I didn't realize the eclipse would be happening for nearly another two hours, so I took photos only of the early part of the red phase, which is the total eclipse phase.

The above photo is how the moon looked, without enhancement, at 5:07 am, about 20 minutes before the maximum stage of the eclipse, at 5:29 am, when the moon was at it's closest to the center of Earth's shadow. Read more here.

I went back inside and tried to go back to sleep.

Here I've enhanced the photo a little, but a 200 mm zoom doesn't really do that well with moon shots, so you should head on over to Geotripper to see some better photos by Garry Hayes, along with explanations about what the heck the terms "super" "blue" and "blood" refer to when describing a moon.

Twelve Months of LFD 2014

I missed this retrospective meme last year (as I also did in 2011), but here it is, back again, per DrugMonkey:

The rules for this blog meme are quite simple.
-Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year. I originally did this meme, after seeing similar posted by Janet Stemwedel and John Lynch. Prior editions include 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.

Previous takes on this Twelve Month meme at LFD were posted for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012. As usual for LFD, I've also added the accompanying first photo of the month, where there was one with the first post of the month, and a gratuitous sign photo for October.

So, here's the year 2014 for LFD:
January:

I'm sitting here inside flight 112--I think--with my phone in airplane mode, wondering if I can create a blog draft that I can save and post later.

February:

We've been having unsettled to stormy weather here in western Nevada for about the last week, with at least light snow accumulating in the mountains, though the south facing slopes have gone back to being mostly bare, even under today's cloudy skies.

March:

Flying back from Alaska on yet another recent trip, I was able to spot Rose Spit, which featured as Where in the West challenge back in October of 2010.

April:

A while back, I started collecting photos of Majuba Hill (AKA Majuba Mountain), partly because I pass by daily on the way to and from work, and also because of it's interesting shape and fascinating geology (which I hope to learn more about on this spring's GSN field trip).

May:

MOH and I will shortly be off on a field trip to a few nearby localities, including Majuba Hill, reportedly a great mineral and rock collecting site, seen here from I-80 looking northwest across Rye Patch Reservoir.

June:

Here are a few photoviews from Majuba Hill, while I get it together to take some rock photos:

July:

A quick report on a canoe trip we took recently:

August:

So, while I wasn't thinking about it, my 1000th post posted, and this is my 1005th! I'm not sure, really, what to say about this — although I'm also sure I'll think of something — other than Yay!!

September:

The sun is about to rise through thick smoke blanketing the
southern Humboldt Range.

October: A colleague of my former (deceased) husband once said, "Archaeologists are the Cowboys of Science."

[He was wrong, btw. Read the post to find out why.]

November:

So there I was, traveling west on I-80 late last week — just after our first rain sans snow (except for at the high elevations of a few mountains east of the Sierra, like the Humboldt and Sonoma Ranges, which top out at 9836 and 9396 feet respectively), and before our most recent larger rain and snowstorm of this past weekend — when I came to the marshes that border the west end of the Fortymile Desert.

December: MOH turned me on to this song just yesterday (I didn't listen to much besides classic rock and country in the 80s).

Sammy Hagar: I Can't Drive 55 (lyrics)
Album: VOA, 1984

Views of Majuba Hill: Full Moon Setting

A while back, I started collecting photos of Majuba Hill (AKA Majuba Mountain), partly because I pass by daily on the way to and from work, and also because of it's interesting shape and fascinating geology (which I hope to learn more about on this spring's GSN field trip).

Two weeks ago, I was able to capture this photo of the full moon setting behind a low area in the Majuba Mountains between Majuba Hill on the right and an unnamed hill on the left (topo map at USGS TNM 2.0). Part of Imlay provides the foreground to the photo.

Less Snowy Morning Views (and one Afternoon View)

At least two limestone formations and at least one shale without any moon: taken before 7:00 am on March 27th at nearly the same time as the moon picture from five days prior (here).

The just-past-quarter moon as seen farther east in the sky that same morning.

One of my views on the way home from work, with a snowy hill of Tertiary ash-flow tuff on the right and the cyclothemic Pennsylvanian Ely Limestone on the hill behind that. The dark hill on the left, above the Ely Limestone and beneath the dark clouds, is underlain by the garnet-bearing rhyolite of Garnet Hill. March 27th.

Alpine glow on Ward Mountain, March 28th.

I see this truck every morning on the way to work. It hasn't moved in more than three years, unless it moved when I wasn't looking and returned to the same spot. The ice was everywhere that week early in the morning, melting most days to rampant mud. March 28th.

March 29th: a day of no pictures; a day with snow that fell like rain, slanting northward from the southerly wind; a dreary day that at 30 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit felt colder than the chill of all the 20 degree mornings of the several previous sunny or semi-sunny days; a yucky, mucky day.

Two photos of the sunrise the morning of March 30th, above and below.

The last sliver of the waning moon playing peekaboo behind the clouds. Color has been somewhat intensified or weirdicated during enlargement and addition of contrast to make the moon more visible.

The robins have been back for about a week: spring is here!

Recent Morning Views

Sunrise from the road to work, March 19th.

A dusting of snow in the parking lot, March 20th, the vernal equinox.

A messy road going into the canyon, March 21st.

Early morning moon over two limestone formations, March 22nd. Snow blows and drifts deep later in the day.

Getting gas amidst the falling snow, March 24th.

And some call this spring. Maybe next month.