Tea at Trianon: Snow Moon

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Snow Moon

Tonight is the full moon of February, also known as the "Snow Moon." It is also a super moon, the largest we will have until 2026. Please do enjoy the moon pictures on East of the Sun, West of the Moon. According to Time:

Good news for sky watchers and selenophiles, the next full moon is set to be the biggest and brightest of the year, according to NASA. the “super snow moon” as it is being called, will cross the skies Tuesday on Feb. 19. While the upcoming “super snow moon” won’t be the extravagant astronomical spectacle that January’s “super blood wolf moon eclipse” was, it will be larger and brighter, and definitely command attention in the sky. If that isn’t enough, the subsequent full moon in March will also be a “supermoon,” rounding off 2019 with a total of three “supermoons.” In a given year, between two and four full moons can be classified as “supermoons.” Here’s what to know about the upcoming “super snow moon” — and what the best time is to see it. (Read more.)

From Forbes:

There are other intricacies to the Moon's orbit around the Earth, however. It doesn't just make the same ellipse around Earth in a constant fashion. There are other forces at play. For example:

The Sun pulls unevenly on the Moon throughout a lunar month: its gravitational attraction is stronger during the new phase and weaker during the full phase.

The Earth is more distant from the Sun in July and closer to the Sun in January, causing a slight difference in both gravitational pull and orbital speed.

The Moon is sometimes more closely aligned with the Earth-Sun plane and Earth's axial tilt than others, sometimes inclined at only 18 degrees but other times as inclined as 28 degrees.

Additionally, because the Sun always shines evenly but the Moon has uneven speeds in its elliptical orbit, the Moon appears to wobble, or librate, in the sky as viewed from Earth. (Read more.)