Sands and Stars

Oh, spring has sprung! And so has my first installment to my  Observational Astronomy section! Ah, the first day of spring! Or true spring, as I call it. Oh, yes, in some locations, it's still cold and nasty, but as I once wrote in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, the arrival of spring just “dealt Old Man Winter a well-deserved death blow!” That instant came this year when the vernal equinox, that heralds spring, occurred at 5:01 a.m. EDT today (March 20, 2025). At least Old Man Winter is pretty much a shadow of his former self. Here are examples from past years. The long and short(er) of it: Two-season shadows across the street from my house. Why is today so important if the weather's not so great? It's spring, right? Because the seasons are astronomical events, not weather events. To me, there is no such thing as meteorological spring, except to allow weather people to have a fixed date to attach data. Without the astronomical tilt of our planet, there would be no seaso...

Winds of change . . .  Leave it to a hurricane to boot me out of my doldrums and make me write again. Well, it’s actually my scorecard from the night Hurricane Milton roared past us. My lovely and brave wife Amy and I hunkered down in a safe house we rented in Palm Harbor, Fla. Only a few miles away from home, it was about 50 feet higher in elevation, so we’d have no storm surge issues there. Radar imagery of Milton; the blue dot shows our location. Our comfortable home in the Daventry Square neighborhood was in a mandatory evacuation zone, so with our dog Draco at our sides, off we went. When we returned, our house was undamaged for the most part.  Draco surveying the scene from the rental house. It looks calm out there, but conditions were going to get much worse. So, if you like, please come along and "enjoy" Milton with us! And don't forget about  our hurricane experiences as told in the Washington (Pa.) Observer-Reporter! My scorecard: Oct. 11, 2024 Got an extreme wi...

It's clear I don't get out much. Not all that much in my 70 years, for sure. In fact, I'm certain some of my friends will chuckle at this paltry list. Why just  who would guffaw over this? I'm thinking of a dear college buddy and a former writer, both of whom have traveled all over the place. Ah yes, it's Pete overseas. A 2023 photo of your friendly author (left, of course) with the statue of Irish singer Joe Dolan in the Market Square of Mullingar, County Westmeath. Before you allow yourself a hearty ha-ha, keep in mind I have been to places in my home state of Pennsylvania such as Apollo, Moon, Venus, Mars, Slippery Rock, Brave, Big Beaver, and yes, even Fombell. Oh, and I now live in Florida, which certainly is quite a trip in itself these days. The real reason I've compiled this is because . . . well, I was wondering if I'd visited more countries than I have visited U.S. states. Yeah, this is what I do when I can't fall asleep. The final tally says...

What would they think? I stepped back in time on Friday, June 23, 2023. Not literally, of course, but for me, it was a highly emotional moment in which I connected with family from generations ago.    My wife Amy and I visited the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in the village of Ballymore, County Westmeath, Ireland. My great-great grandparents, John and Mary McDermott, were married in that church in 1854, when the building was nine years old. And my great grandmother, Catherine (Kate) Mary McDermott Gray, was baptized here in 1868. Her siblings were baptized here, too. As I stood in the front of the church, tears of joy trickled down my cheeks. I felt somewhat embarrassed: I turned as if to hide the tears from Amy, but I was certain she knew of the powerful feelings I felt. After all, I was standing in the spot where my ancestors had stood, where they taken part in heart-felt ceremonies that were so important to them. It's clear I would not be alive if not for ma...

It's true: I'm getting excited because my head is in the stars. Well . . . in this case, it's focused on just one star: our Sun. Because I know of the advantages of early preparation, I've been busy organizing things for two upcoming eclipses of the Sun. Make no mistake: my stellar wife Amy has been doing more than her share. End of the total solar eclipse in 2017, Nashville. Photo by Mike Manolas. Solar eclipses are fabulous, fleeting events! They're fairly rare, but I suspect what many people might like most is they don't have to stay up late at night to see them. First up, we have an annular eclipse of the Sun on Oct.14 this year (BTW, annular does NOT mean once a year). Here along the Gulf Coast of Florida, about 60 percent of the Sun will be covered when the Moon moves in front of our local star. Of course, we will have proper eye protection, because as everyone knows -- well, perhaps with the exception of a former, uh, president -- people NEVER should look...

  Who said work can't be fun? At times during my four-decade career at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I had an outright ball – especially when I got to write on top of my various other duties. That's me, Panther Prowl co-editor, Riverside High School, 1970. My real start? Maybe. For sure, there were plenty of times for me that fun and happiness seemed distant, unreachable. A couple of sports editors, for example, come to mind – they seemed to live to derive fun from unloading unreasonable expectations. But the days to a much-anticipated big event are drawing closer. I'm looking forward to a gathering this month of fellow souls at the next Post-Gazette Sports Alumni every-other-month dinner. I've seen a list of those who plan to attend, and to be honest, I'm anxious to see every one of them. Good people. During my time in the sports department, say from about 1976 to 1993, I was not a columnist, per se, nor was I one of the paper's all-star reporters. I put in my t...