BLUEMOMENT

I gather from my morning rag that 2016 has been one of the warmest on record. I dinnae ken about that but 4 of us set off from JWD on Monday with the temperature at 15C, meandered down to Lamlash for the night without feeling any need for the heater and then sailed back yesterday for the most part in warmish sunshine, well until night fell anyway. The "super moon" did eventually appear on both nights but was too high by then to appear spectacular. I can't remember such a warm November sail - usually needs heavy insulation and copious quantities of soup.
However, that's it. I used the extra labour to strip the sails off and hopefully Marisca will be tucked up in her nice warm shed very soon.

I have been monitoring the diameter of the moon (sextant) over recent nights when its visible, at about the same time after moonrise (to avoid variable refractive error), and find that its reducing.
So either it's moving away, or we are, or its getting smaller, or my index error is changing daily!

mm5aho wrote:I have been monitoring the diameter of the moon (sextant) over recent nights when its visible, at about the same time after moonrise (to avoid variable refractive error), and find that its reducing.
So either it's moving away, or we are, or its getting smaller, or my index error is changing daily!

Marvellous instrument, that. My money is on the moon getting smaller, possibly because of the activities of a giant galactic goat.

I wondered if all the junk left there by various moon missions, having added to the weight changes it's orbit, and so that it is moving further from earth.
If that's so, then will we expect smaller tidal variations in future?
Will the west coast become like the Med with hardly any tide?
And what about all the tidal power someone thinks to generate in places like the Pentland firth?
And will the Corryvreckan (Coire Bhreacain, cauldron of the speckled seas) become the Poit calman somalta ??