Total Eclipse...

Early this coming Tuesday morning there will be a total eclipse of the moon. You will have to wake up early to see it though. The eclipse will begin around 4:51am with the total eclipse beginning at 5:52am. We won't be able to see the whole thing as the moon will set before it is all over. For folks that live in the western United States this will be the longest eclipse in 7 years... lasting for an hour and a half.

Just a refresher if you need one... a total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the Earth's shadow.

As of right now the weather conditions are looking pretty good to see it. So, wake up for work or school a little early and step outside to enjoy this lunar event!

Have a great weekend!


--Chris

See the Space Station & Space Shuttle...

With the Shuttle Endeavour still in space you will have the opportunity to get a two for one when it comes to celestial viewing over the next few nights. You will be able to see the shuttle docked with the International Space Station tonight and Sunday. Now, if the shuttle does not end up coming home a day early (because of Dean) and undocks from the space station on Monday then we may get a chance to witness something very rare... a double spaceship transit across the night sky.

The space station and shuttle will appear as separate, bright points of light moving in tandem. Flyby times depend on where you live.

To see when it will be above your neighborhood as well as tips on how to see it you can click here...

See Endeavor and ISS

Now, it you are a little more into astronomy you can actually get a pretty good view of the space station these days with little more than a decent telescope. You can see solar panels, laboratories and living modules, a robotic arm and docked supply vessels.

Happy viewing!


--Chris


Some information courtesy Space Weather.com

New Technology...

Whenever I go out to schools or meet folks around town they always ask me what it is I love about my job. There are many things to love about getting to do your hobby for live, but one of the cool things is the technology.

We have the latest and greatest technology to use here in the weather center. From what you see 'on TV' to what we use 'behind the scenes' to help us forecast the technology is always improving.

The above image was taken by a the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM Satellite). This satellite gives us never before seen picture of storms around the world. In the above image it is showing us where it is raining inside of what was Tropical Storm Dean (Dean is now a hurricane). This is important because before TRMM we had to almost guess where it was raining if the storm was not within reach of land based radar. In the link above you can see two images of Dean and see how the radar picture shows the improvement in the organization of 'Dean'.

So, there is just one small example what what makes my job so great.

The weekend is almost here!


--Chris

Back to School....

If you listen closely… you can almost hear them. Believe it or not the school bells will be ringing for the kids in my neighborhood as early as next week. I live in Paulding County and I’ve noticed that the big bright smiles that used to greet me as I turned onto my street every afternoon aren’t looking as big and bright these day. One glance at the calendar and I knew why. The summer of 2007 is coming to a quick close for the little ones.

The start of a new school year… doesn’t that bring back some funny memories? Automatically my mind goes back to my school box. And although everyone’s grade school school-box was basically the same size, I can remember spending countless hours trying to come up with new and creative way to arrange my goods. To my dismay, that little box of 24-Crayola Crayons, small bottle of Elmer’s Glue, scissors that couldn’t even do damage to a stick of butter, ruler, and two or three cool colored pencils were usually going to only go in there one of three ways.

The elementary grade that I remember more clearly that any other was fourth grade. All the girls had Calvin Klein jeans with the label on the back right pocket. We all carried a comb in the that same back pocket and our jeans had to be rolled up two times (and only two times) to have the perfect cuff on them.

Fourth grade was the first year that I felt the pressure of a good hair day. Every girl had a Dorothy Hamill hair cut. You had to get your hair cut my “Spunky” at Fantastic Sams across from the mall. And no style was perfect unless you had first washed your hair with ‘short and sassy’ shampoo.

Back in those days we mostly played music on record players or some boldly colored portable cassette player that ran on four size D batteries that your parents could never keep in stock. My two favorite songs of the 4th grade were “Don’t go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Ki Ki Dee….and “Disco Duck” by Rick Dees.

Every girl wore Loves Baby Soft perfume on their wrist and Kissing Sticks (cinnamon flavor) on their lips. The list of fun fact memories goes on and on. Ironically I am approaching my 40th birthday but I can remember that fourth grade year like it was yesterday.

Maybe next time I see a little neighborhood face sporting the look of those back-to-school- blues I’ll stop and remind them, it’s not so bad.

In fact, those are some of the happiest memories of my life.