Re: Pull of the Moon

[frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>]

Err, Uhh,  Ohhh a Lunar eclipse (of the sun) ie. solar eclipse.   
Mental short hand I suppose.  Must be the blizzard going on outside  
here on the Montana/Wyoming border.

While we are on the subject an actual Lunar Eclipse would have been a  
lessor of an event in the Meso with a smaller portion of the disc  
obscured by the earths shadow.  Might have been mighty colorful  
though.  Further thought, a larger full moon would also illuminate  
better than our current moon making night vision less critical during  
that time of the month. Moonless nights would still be pretty dark  
with no light pollution about.

Frank (Rooster) Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming
www.cattleranch.org

On Apr 18, 2006, at 6:09 PM, Alaric Shapli wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "frank bliss" <frank@blissnet.com>
> To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 4:03 PM
> Subject: Re: Pull of the Moon
>
>
> >  This discussion brought an image of a Cretaceous Lunar Eclipse  
> > into  my minds eye.  Since the moon may have been 1/4 larger (ie.  
> > 1.25  minutes of angle), it would have periodically covered the  
> > suns disc  much more completely and for a somewhat longer period  
> > of time (maybe  the same length though because it was moving  
> > faster across the sky)  for each eclipse. No annular eclipses in  
> > the Meso.  It would have  been quite a scene (and a good one to  
> > paint for one of you artists)  of a Mesozoic eclipse putting all  
> > thee huge browsers of the day  asleep for an hour in the middle of  
> > the day.
> > Frank (Rooster) Bliss
> > MS Biostratigraphy
> > Weston, Wyoming
>
> Just de-lurking for a moment to point out that what you're talking  
> about is actually a SOLAR eclipse, not a lunar eclipse.