Attend Full Moon Picnic Fri Nov 7 at 6 PM on Pont des Arts

Ahoy there,
The next Moonrise Picnic will be Friday 7 November 6 PM - 7:30 PM. Moonrise will be around 6:35 PM so don’t be late. Since this is a couple days after the official full moon we should get some great views of shadowed craters and other terrain on the moon, instead of the flattened view we get of a full moon.

Indian Lore
American Indians called November the Beaver Moon. Some people claim this was because it was the last chance to set traps to supply themselves with warm furs for the cold the cold winter ahead. Personally I'm skeptical that Indians would wait until the last minute to build their wardrobe. My theory is that Full Beaver Moon comes from the point of view of the beavers as they make their own preparations for winter. It's also called the Frosty Moon.

WHAT: Everyone brings food and drink to share. If you bring hot drinks: hot cider, hot chocolate, spiced wine, coffee, etc, you’ll be very popular.

WHERE: Pont des Arts. We'll gather at a bench past the middle towards the Left Bank end of the bridge. Nearest metros: Pont Neuf and Louvre-Rivoli.

WHEN: Friday November 7, 6 PM - 7:30 PM

WHY: Share one of the most memorable sights in Paris with some of the nicest people around.

WHO: You and your friends.

HOW to find us: Keep your eyes out for a small telescope on a tripod if the sky is clear.

THEME: Halloween leftovers!

BIRTHDAYS: Are you a Scorpio? If so, bring a cake so we can celebrate your birthday this month. I’ll provide sparklers and we’ll blow out the world’s largest birthday candle!

PUZZLER I: How long does it take Earth to make one rotation on its axis? If you think it’s 24 hours…think again.
Wait a minute, a day is 24 hours long. So obviously the earth makes 1 rotation every 24 hours.
Wait 4 minutes more like. Earth actually rotates once every 23 hours and 56 minutes.
OK I’ll bite, where do the extra 4 minutes come in?
There you go - that IS the Puzzler.

PUZZLER I ANSWER:
Earth is rotating on its axis but it’s also revolving around the sun. It travels a little bit every day along its orbit around the sun. It takes 4 minutes longer than one Earth rotation for the sun to reach the same position in the sky the next day. And that’s why a “day” is 24 hours long.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jiP_hiYtF4o

PUZZLER II: Wow an amazing coincidence that the number of hours in a day is a nice even number like 24?
Nope, no coincidence at all.
Why not?
You’ve done it again. That’s Puzzler #2

PUZZLER II ANSWER:
The number of hours in a day is an arbitrary choice. And it was made by the Egyptians around 1500 B.C. They basically decided to divide daytime and nighttime into 12 parts each. They had their reasons, but they could have decided to divide a day into 20 “hours” or 32 “hours” or whatever instead. And BTW that’s why we have chosen to divide the globe into 24 time zones.

Here’s an explanation that is guaranteed to explain more than you could possibly want to know until you get to the summary which says:
"The upshot is that the standard 24-hour day is not something found in nature, but a human invention that corresponds to the real days that we actually experience on Earth."
https://medium.com/the-philipendium/a-day-is-not-24-hours-c36ee96078c6

ciao for niao,
Captain Bob