Things are not always what you thought would be. Nothing has something behind it as well. The beautiful night vision, when the shining moon fades in while the twinkly stars start appearing. The beautiful clouds covering the sky. The smoke taking over the stars and moon. Therefore I'm observing in more depth with my topic, and figure what are those glamorous things behind the nothing.
It's not just one day observation. But, it's 7-8 weeks observation. Since the first day of my observation till now I have noticed a big change in nature. Since past few weeks, it started getting dark around 5:30ish. Days are not as long anymore. Nights are taking over the day. For the past three days, clouds has been more pinkish and it is bright. I mean "red"; as I said on my second blog that clouds has no pink color-- even if it looks pink it is considered as red as far as my research. I still remember last year it was already snowing at this time. Few years ago it started snowing in October. But this year the snow is not here. Is it going to snow any sooner? I mean, I'm not a big fan of snow but I do miss it once in a while. You know what I mean? My parents and family members have always told me that-- when ever it starts getting cold; it gets darker fast. But, right now it's not even as cold as it suppose to be in November. And it still gets darker fast. Why? Why, is the dark taking over the light? I question this all day long. According to The Naked Scientist, when it sets it’s at the steepest part of the curve, so it gets below the horizon quickly. The same thing happens at the equator when it gets to the horizon very, very quickly and so, it gets dark much quicker at the equinox than it does in the midsummer and midwinter (Dave). The weather doesn't decide the change of nature. It is Because the axis that the Earth revolves around isn't perpendicular to the sun. This means that during winter the northern hemisphere points away from the sun, and get less hours of sunshine. So that's why its a longer day in summer and shorter day in winter.
Around the solstice, the height of the sun changes little with respect to the horizon. This means that the time of sunrise and sunset is more influenced by the Earth’s elliptical orbit than at other times of year. By: Winter solstice 22nd Sep 2012
Work Cited
Dave."Why does it get dark quickly in winter?"
The Naked Scientist . 22 Sep. 2012.n.d. 16 Nov.2014.
Grieser, Justin. "Winter solstice" The Washington Post. 21 Dec, 2012.n.d. 16 Nov. 2014
I was sitting out in my front yard on my porch swing with a wrapped fluffy, warm, purple blanket around me. It was pretty chilly outside little windy but not as much. I was just looking around here and there; singing while texting. I wasn't exactly observing yet. But as I was looking around, I look up and I see this mind blowing sky--
I have never seen this before in my whole life.
On, Thursday November 6, 2014; I see this beautiful moon hidden behind the clouds; that looked like spider web. I mean, it, it was crazy. It was huge. There was no stars. It was only the moon and the spider web looking clouds. The sky was bright. The sky looked more grayish, instead of black. This was intense, and I luckily captured a picture of it.
Moon hidden around the Spider web clouds.
Taken by: Hetva Patel, on November 06, 2014
When ever I observe the sky, I never see clouds this close. I mean, the clouds are all sometimes together but never form such a shape. But this time all the clouds were around the moon forming a spider web.
I wonder why? I mean why only around the moon? It's they are making a boundary for the moon to might escape. Or, maybe were they protecting the moon from something?
To find the solution to my question's I did some research. I was reading the EarthSky, it said that when clouds form a circle around the sun or moon is called Halo around. Halo rounds are a sign of thin cirrus clouds drifting high above our heads. They are a sign of nearby storms.
In the article on EarthSky, Susan JensenSaid "There’s an old weather saying: ring around the moon means rain soon. There’s truth to this saying, because high cirrus clouds often come before a storm. Notice in these photos that the sky looks fairly clear."
Rings around the Moon are caused when moonlight passes through thin clouds of ice crystals high in Earth's atmosphere. On the Cool Cosmas, it said that "As moonlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent in a way similar to light passing through a lens. The shape of the ice crystals causes the moonlight to be focused into a ring. This is similar to the way water droplets in the lower atmosphere can bend sunlight to create a rainbow." So, this is how it causes for the halo circle to form.
Work Cited
Jensen, Susan."What makes a halo around a Sun or Moon?" EarthSky.org. 16 Mar. 2012. n.d. 09 Nov. 2014.
"What causes a ring around the moon?" CoolCosams. N.p.n.d.Web. 09 Nov. 2014
Days are shorter; nights are longer, Few stars here and there... Branches breaking off, flying around looking, like wizard's broom; with their leaf buddies. What are you doing wind? As the wind touches me, the goose bumps pops out to protect me; but it fails. My hair flying away in the wind. It felt like the lonely wind was going to disappear me with it, just like how it disappeared the moon. The moon was missing! It almost felt like a tornado. But it wasn't as bad. It was crazy outside. I didn't stay out there for much. That Wind's noise scared me. It almost sound like the wind was communicating. But does it? I mean what is wind? What causes wind? -Field Notes
Wind is air in motion. It is produced by the uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun. Since the earth's surface is made of various land and water formations, it absorbs the sun's radiation unevenly. Two factors are necessary to specify wind: speed and, direction.
What really causes the wind to blow is, when the sun warms the earth's surface, the atmosphere warms too. So, some parts of the earth receives direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. So, then the cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. And this movement of air is what makes the wind to blow.
In the article How Stuff Works? It said that "In mountainous areas, winds tend to blow uphill during the day because the mountainside is heated more than the valley below it. At night, when the mountainside cools, the wind blows downhill. In summer, breezes tend to blow from oceans or large lakes to the warmer land during the day. They blow from the land at night, when the land cools." (http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/meteorological-terms/wind-info3.htm)
So I found this two different breeze. The two different cycle of wind/breeze:
We might hate wind and think it's useless and all. But in reality it is really useful. Wind is the fastest growing source of electricity in the world. It's often one of the least expensive forms of renewable power available. Some experts say it can sometimes be the cheapest form of any kind of power.
I never knew this but, wind has many different names. On the Weather Wiz Kids website it gave me a list of the names: "Chinook-(westerly wind off the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains) Santa Ana-(easterly towards Southern California ) Scirocco-(southerly from North Africa to southern Europe) Mistral-(northwesterly from central France to Mediterranean) Marin-(southeasterly from Mediterranean to France) Bora-(northeasterly from eastern Europe to Italy) Gregale-(northeasterly from Greece) Etesian-(northwesterly from Greece) Libeccio-(southwesterly towards Italy)" {http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-wind.htm} The Wind Chart This is a chart called "Beaufort Scale" it is where the empirical measure for the wind power is provided. This gives all the information about wind's speed, it's description, and it's conditions as well. This scale was created by a British naval commander "Sir Francis Beaufort" in 1806.
As I was observing the sky around 7:30ish, all I see was a dark, plain, black sky. There was no moon, no stars, I didn't even see any planes fly by, which was shocking because I usually see at least 2 to 3 planes. It was quite. I heard few birds chapping, it sounded like a crow though. It had this thin, squeaky voice.Beside those crows I didn't hear anything.
But I knew this day was coming...
Indians (Hindus) we, celebrate our new year this week (Diwali) It's one of the biggest festival in India. And we have different rituals for each days. It started from the 19th October- 25 October. It's one of those exciting days of the week. We celebrate it with lot of fun, colors, food, decorations, dances, and prayers. I did this art with color sand. It's just one part of our new year.
My Art (Rangloli)
Girls: Me (Hetva), Shagun (my best friend), Krupa, Ankita, Manali, Mansi
Boys: Yash, Nirmit
New Year Night
(Diwali)
Diwali Performance 1
Diwali Performance 2 Part 1
Diwali Performance 2 Part 2
My Diwali Dance Performance
you guys Don't have to watch it all, it long. But it's just a small scenario of what is it like (Diwali).
This is the list of ach days ritual and things we do:
This is the day were we, Indians believe that the sky is dark There is no light at all. This is one of the days for the New Year (Diwali).
Kali means dark, and Kali is also one of our goddess. She, was the destroyer for the evils. She does look scary, but that we pray saying to protect us for the evils and devils.
I was researching some more information about Kali Chaudas and this is what I found:
Kali Chaudas is known as Bhut Chaturdashi. Kali Chaudas is mainly observed in Western states especially in Gujarat.
Kali Chaudas is observed during Chaturdashi Tithi during Diwali festivity. However Kali Chaudas day should not be mixed with Roop Chaudas and Narak Chaturdashi as it might fall one day before of Narak Chaturdashi. The day of Kali Chaudas is decided when Chaturdashi prevails during midnight which as per Panchang is known as Maha Nishita time.
As rituals of Kali Chaudas involve visiting crematorium during midnight for offering Puja to the Goddess of darkness and to Veer Vetal, the day of Kali Chaudas is decided when Chaturdashi prevails during midnight.
It seems that most Panchang don't make such distinction and list Kali Chaudas with Roop Chaudas and Narak Chaturdashi. Hence one has to be cautious while looking for Kali Chaudas date.
Further Kali Chaudas should not be confused with Bengal Kali Puja which is observed one day after Kali Chaudas when Amavasya Tithi prevails during midnig 2014 Kali Chaudas Puja.
So the dark sky, no light wasn't there for no reason. It was there because the religious beliefs.
October 8, 2014
Full Moon/Blood Moon/Lunar Eclipse
I was so excited today, because it was Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse tonight. But unfortunatly I couldn't stay awake watch the Lunar Eclips. But I have seen other Lunar Eclipse and they are just so intresting. Like it's just mind blowing how nature works. But this time since I couldn't get up to see it I went on youtube to find videos of it, because I like to see them. I have the video Linked above. I thought this was really cool, and the cool things i found out about the Lunar Eclipse is that, lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly behind the Earth into its umbra (shadow). This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned (in "syzygy") exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Here is a picture of how it works.
From my Field Notes:
Today I was sitting out side in my back yard, wearing a big coat and with my fluffy purple blanket because it was super cold. But anyways, I was just sitting out there just observing the full moon. I didn't see any stars. I mean I usally see atleast one star if not couple, but I didn't see any stars tonight and I wondered why? So, I was thinking about it and I thought that maybe the brightness of the moon caused it to hide in the sky? Like is it because the the moon is so bright that, it has so much brightness which affects the stars around it not be able to seen because the brightness from the moon covers it. But, It still looked beautiful outside. It was only the big orange moon and the black sky. I saw flew group of birds fly by and disappeared into this big tree. It was so peaceful outside.
A full moon is basically the lunar phase that occurs when the moon is completely illuminated as seen from the earth. This occurs when the moon is in opposition with the sun (when it is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun; more precisely, when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees).
I wonder, what causes the full moon? Do they appear every month? If yes, then why?
So well, I was doing a little research on full moon and I found some interesting about this topic.
and I found this very cool moon chart which took my confusing away about why moon shapes changes everyday and why do we have full moon.
Well so, full moon basically occurs because by the angle changing of the earth, the moon and the sun, as the moon orbits the earths.
At a full moon, the earth, moon, and sun are in approximate alignment, just as the new moon, but the moon is on the opposite side of the earth, so the entire sunlit part of the moon is facing us. The shadowed portion is entirely hidden from view.
After few research I found out that full moon occurs every 29.5 days. And 12 times a year.
So I was doing my AP English homework and I found this beautiful poem that relates to my blog and I wanted to share this poem with you guys.
Full Moon Singing in an Empty Sky
Folds of cloud ripple from full moon oranges and purples light up the sky white and black appear as moon cries. Lost, found, love escapes again passion quashed. Darkness. Pain.
Light peeps through tear in sky then disappears behind a lie. Belief that love can shine twice maybe from a different moon singing a different tune.
Full moon singing in an empty sky causing rippling clouds to cry.
Why is Nevada so bipolar?
I mean it was hot couple hours ago, it was sunny yesterday. And now all of the sudden its raining?
Thats too wired.
But it looked beautiful outside. I love rain it's like my favorite thing. The smell, Birds chapping, the pink clouds. Oh my god it was just gorgeous. The moon and stars were hidden. It was so quite outside except few cars passed by and the birds, but that all went along with the rain and made the rain complete.
But see, I wonder why does the clouds turn pink whenever it rains?
Is there a chemical reaction or is it just something else?
Well, when I was younger my grandma use to tell me that the sky change the color when its raining is because of the water cycle, my grandma says that the clouds collects the water steam, and then when the clouds are filled 100% with water the color changes, and it starts raining. And then the same thing happens all over again.
But then I was researching if what my grandma said was true or not.
So, on this website: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/High_School_Earth_Science/Climate_and_Its_Causes
I was reading about the climate and the causes of it, and it said
"The term climate also refers to Earth's entire climate system. The climate system is influenced by the movement of heat around the globe. Heat is carried by currents within the atmosphere and oceans. The type and amount of vegetation also affects climate. Plants absorb heat and retain water, which may increase or decrease rainfall. The composition of the atmosphere also controls climate. If the concentration of greenhouse gases increase or decrease, the heat-trapping abilities of the atmosphere rise or fall."
And by this information I think what causes Nevada to be a bipolar state is that we live in a desert, where the temperature is very high and its windy which causes the atmosphere to change.
As I was at my Indian Party (Navarati), my friends a I was so hungry after all that dancing. So we went outside to my dads car, because he had Godfathers pizza in his car. Oh my god! The pizza was so good, I mean everything taste good on a empty stomach. So we were sitting outside on the trunk, while eating the pizza I was just staring at the sky, it was 10:30ish I believe. And it was just kind of wired how I took a sticky note and a pen out of my dads front seat and started down writing the most beautiful thing I saw. A green big spot in the sky. It was marvelous. I didn't really knew at that point what caused it, but it was gorgeous how there was a green spot in the sky and the rest covered with pink clouds. I wish I can go back to that day and take picture with that scenario. It looked like Antarctica. It was just drop dead gorgeous, how there was no stars no moon nothing, but the green spot surrounded with pink clouds. But I wonder what causes this clouds to change colors.
I got this picture off of Google. But it didn't quit looked like what I saw so, I edited the picture to make it look like what I saw.
So then later on the week, I was researching what causes the clouds to change color on couple of this websites: http://optics.kulgun.net/Cloud-Colour/ http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/clouds/color.htm
and I was quit impressed on what I found out on what causes the clouds to change colors. While I was reading the cause of the change colors it said that, "Probably the most unusual color for a cloud is green. This is thought to be due to a cloud containing a large amount of water being back lit by reddish light, such as at sunset. Water is naturally blue because it absorbs red. The light falling on the cloud appears red because the blue component has been scattered, and then the red component is absorbed by the water in the cloud, leaving green."
After that I was looking at this other website and I found this chart of the colors and the cause.
As I look out the window I was hoping to see the beautiful moon and those twinkly stars, but instead all I see was a black dark spot. That's not how it usually is. But I think it was the effect from the smoke that's coming down from California--
The King Fire.
Anyways, that night I still decided to look around and see if there was anything I could notice, because I know there was something else that stood out.
Five minutes passed...
Ten minutes passed...
time was just passing. But I still waited around because I wanted to see something instead of an plain black sky.
Around 9:30ish I saw something. Something twinkly. A star. It was on the left side of my window, right on top of the light pole. It was just standing there. That was the one and only star I saw that night. I mean I did see couple airplanes flew by. But instead of that I only saw a start, No moon, no nothing.
On September 15th 2014, is when I realized that stars are not always in a star shape. I actually did a little research on the star shapes. And it proves that stars are not in the star shape. Every stars have different shapes."The star Achernar (Alpha Eridani) was found to be the flattest star."
I actually want to get a telescope and look in more depth about the stars and moon.
Sunday, 21 September, 2014, Oh my god! It was ridiculously smoky outside. It was hard to even see the house across my house. The sky it was impossible to see anything on there, but the sky looked pinkish maybe kind of orange to me it was a just a different color but it was beautiful. Obviously the smoked covered all the stars and moon. I didn't see any.
On Wednesday 24th September, 2014 I was sitting out in my backyard, swinging on my swing with my paper and pen in my hand writing down my observations, counting the stars close to the moon there was only about 4 stars that was close to the moon by the way. But anyways as I was writing everything down I saw a flashing lights going across the sky and the light fades out too. It was the first time me, observing that light. And after that day I been noticing the light going across every night. I wonder why? How is doing it? But my goal is to figure out the purpose behind the light.
By: Hetva Patel
Flashing Light
Field Notes 09/24
I think this a beautiful poetry by Christina Rossetti
about the moon. It grabbed my attention real quick.
Is the moon tired? she looks so pale Within her misty veil: She scales
the sky from east to west, And takes no rest.
Before the coming of the night
The moon shows papery white;
Before the
dawning of the day
She fades away.
From Sing-Song by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
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