Showing posts with label lunar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lunar. Show all posts

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Luna Moth


The first luna moth we've seen this season. Jo found it along the trail leading down from Jerry Joe's north pasture.

Luna moths (Actias luna) are members of the Giant Silkworm moth family. Adult moths live only about one week, just long enough to mate and for the female to lay eggs. For this reason they do not even have mouth parts and live on energy stored as a caterpillar. I believe this specimen is a male based on its longer tail and more highly feathered antennae.
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Sunday, March 04, 2007

Lunar Eclipse

Jo and I knew that we wouldn't be able to see much of the eclipse from down in our holler so we drove up to the county road to get a better view. First, we tried a location up by Jerry Joe's hay barn, but it was cold and windy out in the open waiting for the moon to rise. Besides, we had way to much help from several heifers Jerry had on that pasture. They were sure we had something for them to eat.

We moved on down the county road a bit to a little knoll out in one of Jerry's pastures. The advantage here was that we could drive out into the pasture to the top of the knoll allowing us to stay inside the pickup out of the wind while waiting -- much warmer. We still didn't have a true horizon, though. The eclipse occurred so soon after the moon rose that we could not see it. By the time the moon rose above the hill across the way, the total eclipse was over and the moon was beginning to emerge again.

From March, 2007


Jo still took a few photos before we headed back to the house. At home, we still couldn't see the moon at all. Had we not driven up to the county road, we would not have been able to see any of the eclipse.
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