Snow With More Expected

Well, our children are happy.  We got snow yesterday enough to go snowmobiling and to build little snow caves.

They and Ellyanna spent most of the afternoon outside coming inside to warm by the fire and then go back outside.

So far Daniel has been very careful and doesn't drive fast.

Earlier last week when it was warmer I looked out my window and saw this pair of pigeons right in front of the house.  Since last summer we had noticed them usually sitting on one of our grain bins but never up close.  Once I saw them sitting on our electric wires and heard their soft cooing.  I am happy to have them here.

Friday evening I saw this amazing sight.  The crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter (not as bright on the picture up in the left top corner) shining bright in the southwestern sky.  I had been outside hoping to see Mercury.  Mercury is visible 1/2 hour after sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.  Since it is so close it gets to be 750 degrees during the day.  Mercury has no atmosphere to hold that heat in like earth does so at night it gets to down to -300 degrees.  Because Mercury has no atmosphere, the sky always looks dark.  There are no air particles to scatter the light waves all over the sky.  The reason the sky looks blue on earth is because particles scatter the sun's blue light across the sky.  In fact if you were standing on Mercury the sun would appear white all the time as there would be no particles to bend the light waves into color.

We learned other fascinating things about Mercury.  Since there is a spacecraft orbiting Mercury we were able to view many images online.  This week will be studying Venus.

Here is a great astronomy site that you can join for free to learn what is going on in the night skies.

Speaking of school I need to get ready to start our day.