July 20th 1969 “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed”

Where was I you ask?  Living in Atlanta Georgia while Trinon finished his two years in the Army at Ft. Gordon after returing from Viet Nam. Our little black and white TV had no sound but “as-luck-would-have-it” the landing was being covered on the radio as well since so many people didn’t have Televisions back in 1969. I turned up the radio and watched the tiny TV awe struck at the importance of it all. It truly was “….one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”. I know because I was there!

Tortoise info…. on 7/15 “Bumpy” laid 5 eggs and on Riley’s 6th BD the Mrs. laid a bakers dozen. Watch for hatchlings the first week in October as well as the birth of our 5th grandchild, Brodie Thomas!!!

Moon+June+Spoon=SummerTime

NASA will probably not build an outpost on the moon as originally planned, the agency’s acting administrator, Chris Scolese, told lawmakers on Wednesday. His comments also hinted that the agency is open to putting more emphasis on human missions to destinations like Mars or a near-Earth asteroid. NASA has been working towards returning astronauts to the moon by 2020 and building a permanent base there. But some space analysts and advocacy groups like the Planetary Society have urged the agency to cancel plans for a permanent moon base, carry out shorter moon missions instead, and focus on getting astronauts to Mars.

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In December 2004, a frightened young hippo, separated from his family by a devastating tsunami, bonded with an Aldabra tortoise named Mzee. The 130 year-old tortoise accepted Owen as his own, and an inseparable bond was forged. Meet Owen & Mzee.

The moon will be full Thursday, 04/09/09, which means we’ll see it in all its illuminated glory. But when the moon is just a sliver, we sometimes see our own reflection shining back at us from the moon’s shrouded side, in a phenomenon called “earthshine.”

Earthshine was first proposed by Leonardo da Vinci, who suggested that sunlight could bounce off our planet and be reflected back to us by the moon. By studing this phenomenon scientists are able to link the solar cycle to climate change. Click on “Earthshine” to learn more.

Spring and tortoises… When do females lay eggs and where?

In the wild, females usually lay one or more clutches of 1 to 14 eggs between mid-April and the first week of July. The size of the clutch depends on the size of the female, with small females producing smaller clutches than the larger females.

Females dig the nests with the hind legs and drop the eggs into the nest, placing them with the hind legs and covering them carefully. The location of an undisturbed nest cannot be detected by humans.

Nests are most often associated with the female’s burrows. The nest may be in the burrow mound, the mouth of the burrow, or deep inside the tunnel.

         How much time is required for eggs to hatch?

The eggs, which are the shape and size of ping pong balls, may hatch in 70 to 120 days. The timing is dependent on the location of the nest and how much warmth it receives, among other factors. Some clutches may overwinter and hatch in spring.

At 1:52p.m. on February 24, Mojave Max Made Her 2009 Spring Debut. An early awakening which usually happens in March. Just another indication that global warming affects all living creatures. California’s Mojave Max is a female desert tortoise of approximately 30 year of age that had been slumbering through the winter in her burrow at The Living Desert in Palm Desert, California. The exact environmental triggers for a desert tortoise to emerge from hibernation (technically called brumation in reptiles) are not known, but they are likely factors associated with more hospitable tortoise conditions on the surface, such as warm weather and the promise of tasty and succulent spring wildflowers.

Warning! Recent rain has been sufficient to cause tortoise burrows to flood or the soil to become saturated with water and collapse on tortoises or on unoccupied places. This causes obstructions that tend to become very firm when they dry.

We strongly suggest that you check inside your burrows using a strong flashlight at night or reflected sunlight during the day. If the tortoise is in a puddle or you cannot see the tortoise (and the burrow is wet), remove it from the burrow to continue its winter sleep in a dry, cold place.

Question for the month….. “What if we had no moon?”

A penumbral lunar eclipse will take place on February 9, 2009, the first of four penumbral lunar eclipses in 2009… then on Friday night, Feb. 27, a lovely crescent moon will appear to snuggle up close to Venus, particularly for skywatchers across the Western Hemisphere.  It will make for an eye-catching scene as the two brightest sky objects of the night dominate the early evening scene for about three hours after sundown; sadly, this will be the last in the current series of evening get-togethers between the moon and Venus, for during March Venus will slide rapidly down into the sunset glow and by month’s end will disappear from our evening sky until the spring of 2010.

A poem in honor of Tortoise Moon’s 1st anniversary and St. Valentine’s Day….

Legend of the Moon People

Two moons circle
a remote garden planet
The moon spirits become restless
and go down to walk the garden path

The Great Fire in the sky
smiles upon them and they
each become small moons
reflecting His day star light

Crossing paths one evening
both are drawn to the light of the other
Hand in hand, they now walk
the garden path together

He is Tortoise Moon
and she is Laughing Moon Woman
He is a gradual receding tide,
kind and gentle.
Passionate and impatient,
she is the rush of tide returning

May two moon people ever orbit
in perfect symmetry,
bound by the inimitable force
of gravitational attraction ~e.e. wilholt

The biggest full moon of 2009…

If skies are clear Saturday, go out at sunset and look for the giant moon rising in the east. It will be the biggest and brightest one of 2009, sure to wow even seasoned observers.

Ancient Chinese believe that Genbu represents long life, wisdom and strength. The tortoise and the snake are seen as spiritual creatures that symbolize longevity. It is common knowledge that tortoises in general have long life therefore they are associated with immortality. It was during the Han Dynasty that citizens of China started wearing jade pendants in form of tortoises. It is also through the influence of ancient China on Japan that honor titles in Japan usually refer to the image of tortoises or tortoises themselves.

According to Taoist legend, Genbu was a prince of a Chinese Emperor. He was not interested in replacing his father and decided to become a Tao monk. At the age of 15, he left home and whet on a path of enlightenment. Legend has it that he became a god and was worshipped as the god of the northern skies.

In the classic novel Journey to the West, Genbu was referred to as the king of the North. He had two generals serving him. They were a Tortoise General and Snake General. The king had a temple or shrine at the Wudang Mountains in Hubei. That’s the reason why there is a Snake Mountain and a Tortoise Mountain on both sides of a river in Wuhan, which is the capital of Hubei.

The full moon Friday night, December 12, 2008, will be the biggest one of the year as Earth’s natural satellite reaches its closest point to our planet.

Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days. But the orbit is not a perfect circle.

The moon’s average distance from us is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). Friday night it will be just 221,560 miles (356,567 km) away. It will be 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during the year, according to NASA.

Tides will be higher Friday night, too. Earth’s oceans are pulled by the gravity of the moon and the sun. So when the moon is closer, tides are pulled higher. Scientists call these perigean tides, because the moon’s closest point to Earth is called perigee. The farthest point on the lunar orbit is called apogee.

Some other strange lunar facts:

·  The moon is moving away from Earth as you read this, by about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) a year. Eventually it’ll be torn apart as an expanding sun pushes the moon back toward Earth for a wrenching close encounter.

·  There is no proof the full moon makes people crazy.

·  Beaches are more polluted during full moon, owing to the higher tides.

The moon will rise Friday evening right around sunset, no matter where you are. That’s because of the celestial mechanics that produce a full moon: The moon and the sun are on opposite sides of the planet, so that sunlight hits the full face of the moon and bounces back to our eyes.

At moonrise, the moon will appear even larger than it will later in the night when it’s higher in the sky. This is an illusion that scientists can’t fully explain. Some think it has to do with our perception of things on the horizon vs. stuff overhead.

Try this trick, though: Using a pencil eraser or similar object held at arm’s length, gauge the size of the moon when it’s near the horizon and again later when it’s higher up and seems smaller. You’ll see that when compared to a fixed object, the moon will be the same size in both cases.

You can see all this on each night surrounding the full moon, too, because the moon will be nearly full, rising earlier Thursday night and later Saturday night.

Interestingly, because of the mechanics of all this, the moon is never truly 100 percent full. For that to happen, all three objects have to be in a perfect line, and when that rare circumstance occurs, there is a total eclipse of the moon.

Update December 4, 2008… The 36-year wait for the last remaining tortoise of its kind to mate has ended in 13 sterile eggs.

80 year old Lonesome George, the conservation icon of the Galapagos Islands and last surviving tortoise of his kind, looks set to stay lonely after again failing to produce offspring.

Galapagos National Park officials announced yesterday that eight eggs laid by the giant tortoise’s two female companions are infertile.

Conservationists’ hopes were raised in July when George’s mates produced eggs after no fewer than 36 years of encouragement by park rangers.

The eggs were placed in an artificial incubator but they did not develop embryos. There are now fears that George, who is thought to be around 80 years old and the last remaining member of the Geochelone abigdoni species, is sterile.

The most recent prospective mothers have accompanied George in captivity since 1993 but did not begin mating with him until late 2006. They belong to the Geochelone becki species – believed to be the closest existing relative of George.

Between them, the females laid 13 eggs on Santa Cruz Island in July.

The Galapagos National Park director general, Sixto Naranjo, said George could be sterile, or else the female’s adjustment to captivity could have left them infertile.

Another possibility is that the diet in their breeding centre negatively affected their reproductive systems, he said.

But the conservationists have vowed to continue trying. A team of seven biologists and 26 park rangers have begun taking blood samples from tortoises on nearby Isabela Island in search of hybrid species that share as many or more genes with Lonesome George.

The conservationists may have many more years to assist George – a tortoise called Jonathan on the island of St Helena is now thought to be the world’s oldest living creature after a photograph of him has just emerged, confirming that he is likely to be at least 176.

November moon names: Snow Moon, Dark Moon, Fog Moon, Beaver Moon, Mourning Moon, Blotmonath (Sacrifice Month), Herbistmonoth (Harvest Month), Mad Moon, Moon of Storms, Moon When Deer Shed Antlers.

November is also the month we hibernate our tortoises and like the “The Tortoise Lady” we’ve always hibernated ours in boxes filled with shredded newspaper in the garage. Nighty-night sweet friends… see you in the Spring around Easter time. Our hatchlings we keep warm and fed through at least two winters before allowing them to hibernate for the first time. This year we have five hibernating and four in an aquarium, three entering their second year and one that hatched just last month.

The rarest animal in the world today is a giant tortoise which lives in the Galapagos Islands. There is only one Pinta Island tortoise (Geochelone elephantopus abingdoni). It is a male known by his keepers as Lonesome George. And when he dies the Pinta tortoises will be extinct….. read more about Lonesome George here! Update: Fabled bachelor Lonesome George may finally be a father!!!!