Travelling on Planet Earth.

DAILY SPIN: THE SUN REMAINS THE SAME
[double play of words: the first affectionately parodying a newspaper, while the second paraphrases Led Zeppelin’s album, The Song Remains the Same]

If you watch another planet or two (good sight of Jupiter and Saturn in the southern sky with the moon again last night) through a window you can see our movement: as the planets seem to slowly travel across the window before leaving sight.

Earth’s spin is the same reason for our daily view of the sun. The sun remains the same through time though, as we orbit it,

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The other planets are also orbiting it, so their positions in ‘our night sky’ change. We are on the ‘inside lane’ of Jupiter and Saturn, so will race ahead soon, and they won’t be in our ‘outside lane’ vison.

Our daily/nightly sight of the moon is different, because it orbits us.

End of Days

Leaving days, we leave our planet’s spin influence.

The seasons are not because of our planet’s spin. They are because of our Earth’s rigid 23.4 axis tilt, which means that as we orbit the sun over the course of our year, each north-south hemisphere has half a year pointing towards the sun and then space, or just out to space.

Our planet’s spin still gives both hemispheres day and night, although there is more/less depending on where we are in the orbit (year). Now, the northern hemisphere is pointing more and more to space, so we will have more and more darkness; the southern is pointing more and more towards the sun, so it will have more light.

I hope the above combination of artistic imagination and writing explanation can be useful to your enjoyment of the night sky. I’ve been passively learning about it all my life, but my writing and researching over the last fifteen years made me more active. The planetstoday and timeanddate websites have recently been very useful in giving me a clear image of our solar system and its timings.

The above is the kind of knowledge I wanted 11 years ago when I started this website. That it has taken this long shows that you can’t rush these kinds of things, and knowledge is not always available; or not available in the style you need. In another 11 years we will know much more, and one day we may know how our universe works the way we today know how our solar system does.

Moonday Poem for Pagans

Grilled tomato smoke
wafted greyer than air
as sunlight broke
through window to evoke
before Venus rose
a female soprano voice
emitted from the TV
triggering thought energy
in my brain synergy
the power of three…

to be remembered
half the day later
after seeing Venus
now bright in night
clear as day, as they did say
above new crescent moon.

27 Jan. The Moon returns to the evening sky and appears just 6^o from brilliant Venus in the west after sunset. Today, the planet Neptune is less than 0.25 degrees north of Venus. If you have a telescope, try to see these two worlds in a single field of view. As January ends, Venus rises nearly 3.5 hours after the Sun and reaches well above the western horizon at sunset. Other than the Moon or Sun, it’s the brightest thing in the sky.

The Night Sky This Month

If you liked that poem you’ll probably love some in this:

Moon Documentary Facts and Images

Do We Really Need the Moon? might seem like a silly question for a werewolf, but not so much for humans. The traditional werewolf and a wolf did feature in a documentary presented by Maggie Aderin-Pocock, along with lots of magnificent moon facts and greenygrey images. It’s available on the BBC iplayer (just in the U.K. I think) until Tuesday, and may be elsewhere on the internet?

Moon Documentary Facts and Images

Hi, it’s Stephen Werewolfing, satirical science correspondent at the Greenygrey inspired by legendary astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. I was limited to ten greenygrey images and moon facts in my assignment, but could have got much more, as the moon documentary was that interesting and greenygrey. The first three greenygrey images were within the first 42 seconds.

I think ten greenygrey images is too much to load onto you in one go, so here’s the first five, with another five in the second instalment of this howlingly Hawkingish high-five x2:

Moon Facts and Images

1. The moon is 14,000 miles away from earth. We only see one side of the moon because it takes exactly as long to rotate once on its axis as it does to circle the Earth. The Dark Side of the Moon made famous by Pink Floyd has more craters, meaning it has stopped a lot of asteroids hitting Earth, helping to preserve life on the planet.

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2. The moon was created after an impact between another planet and a planet that is now our planet Earth. The debris dislodged in the collision coalesced into a ball. The moon was initially much closer to Earth, and must have looked like a gigantic orange disc in the sky from our planet.

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3. Moon tides might have started life on Earth. Darwin thought life started in warm little ponds, and many scientists now think he was right. In a simple chemistry experiment in the documentary they replicated tidal power, sunshine and a process of mixing and drying to create Ribonucleic acid (RNA), one of the main building blocks of life.

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4. While there is no evidence that the full moon has any direct effect on animals or humans, it is brighter than the moon at other times, so nocturnal animals can be more active when there’s a full moon. It can also provide a time cue, and coral mainly spawns on or around the full moon.

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5. By sending laser light photons to the moon, and measuring those returning, they can tell how far the moon is travelling away from the Earth now. They have found a clear pattern showing the moon still travelling away from Earth at 3.78 centimetres a year, about the same speed as finger nails grow.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed the first trip to the moon, and are looking forward to the second…

January Night Sky and Moon Phases

Happy New Year. It’s Stephen Wolfing with some Sky news. Bright sky in Britain today offers the opportunity to view Venus under a thin crescent moon soon after sunset. Here’s what the One Minute Astronomer website reported:

January Night Sky

2-3 Jan.  A thin crescent Moon shares the southwestern sky with Venus after sunset.  The planet is on its way to inferior conjunction on the 11th, lying roughly between the Earth and the Sun, so it appears in a telescope as a slender crescent more than 60″ across, larger than Jupiter.

The slender crescent Moon and Venus, along with the stars Altair and Vega, as seen looking west about 30 minutes after sunset on Jan 2, 2014.

If there’s a bright sky on January 24th you will be able to see a crescent moon waning, as well as Mars, Saturn and Venus.

Mars, the waning crescent Moon, Saturn, Venus, and the bright stars Spica and Antares as seen looking SSE on Jan. 24, 2014.

Moon Phases Explained

Wikipedia features clear explanations of the lunar phases. The waxing and waning times are seen oppositely in the Southern hemisphere, so when the northern is seeing the right of the moon, the southern is seeing the left.

Phase	Northern Hemisphere		Visibility	Mid-phasestandard time
New moon	Not visible (too close to the Sun)Later to be followed by theMoon’s first visible crescent		(too close to Sun)	(too close to Sun)
Waxing (young)’crescent moon’	Right side, 1–49% lit disc		late afternoon andpost-dusk	3 pm
First quarter ‘moon’	Right side, 50%-lit disc		afternoon andearly evening	6 pm
Waxing ‘gibbousmoon’	Right side, 51–99% lit disc		late afternoon andmost of night	9 pm
Full moon	Completely illuminated disc		Sunset to sunrise(all night)	sunset to sunrise(all night)
Waning ‘gibbous moon’	Left side, 51–99% lit disc		most of night and early morning	3 am
Last (third) quarter moon	Left side, 50%-lit disc		late night and morning	6 am
Waning (old)crescent moon	Left side, 49-1% lit disc. Diminishing to the Moon’s last visible crescent		pre-dawn and morning	9 am

Full Moon Affects Human Sleep Scientists Discover

Hi, it’s Wolf Whitzer, intrepid newshound at the Greenygrey with a Greenygrey News (GNN) newsflash.

Full Moon Affects Human Body, Mind and Sleep

While it has of course been known in the werewolf world that the full moon is very important to critters and creatures living on the surface of planet Earth, there is now some scientific evidence about it in the human world.

As reported in the Medical News Today article Full moon affects not only werewolves but human sleep too scientists in Switzerland have found that volunteers un-a-were of when a full moon was occurring still had the following reactions to a full moon:

• Brain activity associated with deep sleep (during non-rapid eye movement) fell by nearly a third,
• On average it took the volunteers 5 minutes longer to fall asleep, and their sleep was 20 minutes shorter, and
• There was a drop in levels of melatonin, a protein that helps regulate sleep and wake cycles.

  

  Overview of biological circadian clock in humans. Biological clock affects the daily rhythm of many physiological processes. This diagram depicts the circadian patterns typical of someone who rises early in morning, eats lunch around noon, and sleeps at night (10 p.m.). Although circadian rhythms tend to be synchronized with cycles of light and dark, other factors – such as ambient temperature, meal times, stress and exercise – can influence the timing as well. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This seems in line with the circadian rhythm, which has featured in several articles and poems on this website before.

New Poetry Wordplay Phrases in Creation Bonanza

Hi, it’s William Wolfsworth, theory of relatively
new poetry correspondent at the Greenygrey,
home of werewolf wordplay.
It’s training day today,
with Susie Dentinfang sniffing me the way.

Werewolf Wordplay at the Greenygrey 

Proper rope bag (Photo credit: Pantera and Mateusz)

For those reading this in the human world, ‘sniffing the way’ is apparently a Greenygrey version of the human phrase ‘showing the ropes’.

It seems a long time since I made my debut, and ‘a lot of howls have flown over the forest’ since then; that’s a Greenygrey version of the human phrase ‘a lot of water has flowed under the bridge’.

Wordplay Confuses Cats about Greenygrey

Talking of flow, I’m getting into the flow of the Greenygrey world and language now. Unlike these cats, who seem to have taken ‘greenygrey’ being used as a shortened version of the human phrase ‘sitting on the fence’ literally.

TakePart.com

Cats, there’s nowhere to sit there! And don’t you lot get confused: the Greenygrey has no answers; only questions… Y?

New Spring Poem for Summer

So much time has passed since my debut that Marc Latham’s latest published Folding Mirror poem now seems out of date; as summer has arrived in the northern hemisphere, and winter in the southern; and the poem celebrates spring, which is now at rest with autumn/fall.

Anyway, it’s too early to whine over mass extinction (that’s a Greenygrey version of ‘too late to cry over spilt milk’), here’s the poem:

sunrise (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

Abundant Life, Lives Absolutely 

sunrise of the year
should be spring
surge movement
spins life cycle
full speed

open sky fuels life, nourished by faraway sun

whirling buzzing
birds and bees
busy trees
making the most
of their natural time

dragonfly (Photo credit: schopie1)

P.S. Susie says you lot were passed as Greenygreyliens at the Board of Greenygrey’s last New Moon council.

Werewolf Meditations in Green of Rainbow Valley Oz

Hi, it’s Susie Dentinfang, I hope you enjoyed all your nut roasts and sprouts over the holidays, and haven’t been worrying too much about Grey, Bonzo and Elle in the Rainbow Valley. Thanks to my fantastically foxy colleague Wachel Wiley-Coyote for guesting in my last planned blog, and I’m delighted to say that I’m now back on tip-top form. Moreover, as it’s the Full Moon tonight, I don’t have to do any more countdowning. It was a great moon last night, so I hope it pops through the clouds again tonight.

Full Moon HDR (Photo credit: qwincowper)

Werewolf of Oz in the Rainbow Valley

As I was free from countdowning, the Greenygrey said I could fulfil a dream I’ve had for many moons, and that’s to introduce an episode of my favourite book of the twenty-first century: Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps.

So I thought I’d combine my countdowning with my introducing, to create my own inimitable style. And here it is: 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Werewolf of Oz:

35.  MEDITATIONS IN GREEN OF GREEN 

My dream in green seemed to continue for an age, and I remember it vividly.

We Gotta Get out of This Place (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Meditations in Green to Animals Soundtrack

I didn’t want to leave the comfort I felt in green, and the way it reminded me of Green, but I thought I could hear the song We Gotta Get Out This Place again. I opened my eyes and saw that Bonzo and Elle had been joined around a bush telly by the Animals I dreamt about in Latham, Western Australia. I took the hint and rose from my slumber. Between my decision and standing up, the Animals and telly disappeared, leaving just Bonzo and Elle sitting on the grass.

They were very understanding about my time-out, saying it was nice to see me awake and refreshed. I didn’t mention seeing the other stuff, as they might have thought I was losing it!

The original cover of Trail Of The Lonesome Pine (1975) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I certainly did feel refreshed, and it was as if my sleep had provided the green light to speed through green. It wasn’t long before I could see blue-ridged mountains in the distance. I remembered how Green and I passed through blue-ridged mountains on our North American ramble, meeting those two chaps searching for the lonesome pine.

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Notes

Blue-ridged mountains feature in the song, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, with Laurel and Hardy having sung a memorable version.
Meditations in Green is a book by Stephen Wright.

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New Words and Phrases Passed by Board

Hi, it’s Susie Dentinfang, word and phrase expert at the Greenygrey and Countdown to the Full Moon. As you will no doubt have read yesterday, ‘Werewolfie’ created a great new Greenygreyism, and we are delighted to announce that a carefully crafted final version has now been passed by the Board of Greenygreyisms for ‘Full Honours Greenygreyism’ status. The final phrase is:

‘At the Greenygrey it’s not the winning that matters,
it’s the taking part… in greenygrey.’

Werewolfie would again like to thank the Shanghai Masters, Denver Post and tennis players for making his dream of creating a ‘Full Honours Greenygreyism’ come true, and especially Tomas Berdych.

Were-the Werewolf Passed as Grade Two Greenygreyism 

New Moon Landing (Photo credit: Avital Pinnick)

The Board only sit once a month, in line with the New Moon, and therefore also reviewed Michael Wolf and Andy Wolfhol’s ‘were-the werewolf’ from September 25th at the latest meeting.

Michael and Andy applied for Full Honours status for their phrase, and gave compelling presentations in support of their new Greenygreyism. They did enough to win official recognition for ‘were-the werewolf’, but it was classed as a Grade Two Greenygreyism.

Receiving G2 status in the GG world is nothing to be ashamed of, when you consider the quality of some of the other Greenygreyisms, and the pair of werewolf-wordsmiths (W2) ‘were’ not at all disappointed.

The Greenygrey of Green and Grey Ages

Hi, it’s Susie Dentinfang, word expert at the Greenygrey and Countdown to the Full Moon. I noticed that there has been much discussion on this site lately about green and grey in terms of age. So I decided to investigate in our beloved Free Online Dictionary.

Dictionary (Photo credit: noricum)

The Greenygrey of Green

The dictionary shows there are positive and negative uses for green in terms of age.

The positive is ‘Youthful; vigorous’; while the negative is ‘Naive; gullible’.

The Greenygrey of Grey

The dictionary also shows there are positive and negative uses for grey in terms of age.

The positive is ‘Neutral; venerable’; while the negative is ‘Ancient; dull’.

That’s all for now, and I hope you give these definitions the green light, or at least consider them a grey area.

English: Grey and Green Beneath the M1. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

New Green Phrases and Old Werewolf Poems

Can you see the wood for the trees?

Hi, it’s Susie Dentinfang, dictionary diva at the Greenygrey and Countdown to the Full Moon. While you are probably eager for completely new Greenygrey material, the recording of Greenygrey history can be a slow, laborious and painstaking task, so please bear with us.

New Greenygreyism similar to Seeing Wood for Trees

And it is very exciting news for us, and we hope it will be for you too. We think we have a new greenygreyism.

While Martin ‘Werewolfie’ Adams was an amazing sportswerewolf, and is a great sports correspondent, he’s not an etymologist. And he is the first to admit that when he used the phrase ‘not seeing the Green for the greenygrey’ in his recent post about goalie kits that he was unaware (not un-a-were) he was making Greenygrey history.

I can confirm that it was the first time the phrase ‘not seeing the green for the greenygrey’ has been used in the Greenygrey world. I have found a related phrase in the English language, which goes something like: ‘not seeing the wood for the trees’.

It is explained by our beloved free English dictionary as: ‘if someone can’t see the wood for the trees, they are unable to understand what is important in a situation because they are giving too much attention to details.’

Maybe Green’s greenygrey kit disguised the West Ham goalie so much that the Blackpool strikers spent too much time looking for details, such as aiming for the goalposts, but sent most shots wide; meaning they couldn’t see the goal for the posts, like the wood for the trees.

Werewolf of Oz poems in Tips for Writers

Secondly, an addition to the recent post about Grey’s Oz poems in Tips for Writers. Greenygrey admits just skimming through Tips before blogging that Tips 89 contained the Oz Flight poem, which is the opposite to not seeing the wood for the trees; more like not seeing the trees for the wood!

Turns out that after a closer look there are several Werewolf of Oz poems in it. Altogether there’s: Rainbow Valley Shropshire Lad, The Greycliffe House Mouse, Oz Flight, New Day, 3×4 and Tree to Sea.

Thanks to Tips for publishing them. They’re all available in the Werewolf of Oz, and will be blogged here over the next few months. Cheers.