New paintings and regular art updates.
A couple of days ago I was driving home and came round a bend to see a bright red sun on the horizon. For a second I stared at it then realised it was dangerous and looked away. But it was slightly too late. Now when I look I can see a slight bright patch where my eyes had wandered across the view. It’s faded a bit so I guess I haven’t done permanent damage but I will try not to do that again!
Lighting detail on the ceiling of Hanley Library, Stoke-on-Trent. I love the design. We were singing “this little light of mine” at a monthly choir practice and it really chimed that the image went so well with the music. It’s as if the sun is encouraging people to read and to use the library to enjoy all sorts of experiences.
For some reason I’ve joined a Facebook page where people debate whether the Earth is flat or a sphere. In the last couple of weeks I’ve read some very odd speculations about how the Sun must be close to the earth and the ocean is held on the earth by an ice wall that is attached to it’s circumference.
I was interested because the author Terry Pratchett set his comic fantasy Discworld series on a similar structure. It sits atop four elephants which ride on the shell of the world turtle, the great a’tuin. To be honest his ideas are more sensible than the flat earthers!
It’s a funny and confusing page, although people do get into arguments. The scientific facts about the globe are repeated over and over again, but they are disputed and often completely contradicted by videos that are nonsensical, with descriptions that are very odd indeed.
Why do I read it? Because it makes more sense than what’s happening in the USA at the moment!
The Moon will be eclipsed by the Earth tomorrow morning and there will be a blood (red) moon due. That means that as the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon the light rays from the Sun are refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. Blue light is scattered more but red light continues towards the Moon and illuminates it. (in a similar way that at sunset the sky can turn red).
Moonlight has been important in my life, from the Moon landings from 1969 and seeing it in its various phases. I remember being in my bedroom sitting on my bedroom window ledge as a child and reading books by moonlight. I loved being able to read even though we had to turn the lights out. I used to enjoy it.
There is a Facebook post saying there is a really bright big comet that will appear in the sky tonight. I do get annoyed with these sort of posts because they are so illogical.
I decided to reply: If it was in the sky we would have seen it coming. It wouldn’t just appear. It might be travelling at a few hundreds or thousands of miles an hour but it wouldn’t appear instantaneously. There is a comet called Atlas (not sure of the full name) that is in the southern sky after recently passing the sun. It’s only a low visability comet and is starting to fly out of the solar system. Visible with binoculars just before sunrise. Gradually dimming as it becomes more distant.
I’m amazed it’s sunny today, we started it with a bright red sunrise this morning that indicated bad weather. It has been grey and foggy for over two weeks, dark and gloomy. I’d begun to think the sun would never return. Hopefully the light will last a while.
It’s expected to be sunny for a couple of days before it starts to rain. I’m sad that it’s like that as in winter we have so few hours of sunshine anyway. I suppose you just have to find a way through.
The rain and clouds are stopping us seeing an evening comet in the west of the UK as the sun sets. Details can be found at http://www.spaceweather.com
It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful and hopefully naked eye comet although as it moves away from the sun it will fade and rise higher in the sky. I’m not sure but I think it’s come in from the Oort cloud on a long trajectory. I want the clouds to clear, soon!
I drew this in the 1980s I have it on the stairs and it’s badly faded. I might use filters to try and restore how it looks? It’s sad when you have created something but the sun destroys it over time. I don’t know if you can buy ink that is resistant to sunlight? Maybe?
Apparently there was another aurora show last night but I must have been asleep. There is another one due tonight in the UK but now it’s raining! This bad photo is from a few weeks ago. I have a tremor and as this was a long (night) exposure over 60 seconds it means I have awful camera shake. Anyway it seems Auroras are increasing because we are close to solar maximum (the sun’s magnetic poles get more and more tangled until suspots explode out as various coronal mass ejections or solar flares, maximum is every 22 years) Then in 11 years later it returns to solar minimum. I’m sorry if this isn’t explained very well.
Sketch of an eclipse on canvas in acrylic paint. I challenged myself to just paint with red, yellow, blue, white and black so I had to mix new colours using the primary colours on the pallette. I added a tiny moon surrounded by the corona of the sun visible against the darkened sky. It might be something I paint properly in future.
Mallaband-Brown