February 20 Lunar Eclipse

On February 20th, from 8:43pm until about 12:10 am there was a lunar eclipse. Between 10:00 and 10:52 it was a full eclipse. The rest of the time it was a partial eclipse. According to Sky and Telescope Magazine of Astronomy , this eclipse would be visible in all of Western Europe and the Americas.

My Mom told me about the eclipse. She printed an article about it and we planned to watch it. That evening after my Mom got my baby sister to sleep, we went outside to watch it. The first time we went outside was at about 8:45pm. The first picture is what I saw. We stayed outside only for about 5 minutes that time.

A while later we went outside again and went up to the golf course behind my house to watch it. This time we stayed outside for about 10 minutes. It was very cold so we did not want to stay out too long. By the second time, the moon was starting to get a dark red in color. We brought chairs to sit on and blankets to cover up with. We took two pictures with our camera.

The third time we went out we sat on the golf course for a while, then we returned to the backyard of my house to watch it. By then the moon was in full eclipse. This was after 10pm. We stayed outside until about 10:30. I took another picture while we were still up at the golf course. After 10:30 it was very cold and we were tired so we did not come back outside.

I really enjoyed watching the eclipse! I had never seen one before. The article I read in Sky and Telescope said the next total Lunar Eclipse

will be December 20 - 21, 2010. I know what I'll be doing that night!

These pictures are in the order that I saw the moon during the eclipse. The last photo was taken at just about full eclipse. The camera did not pick up the red color that we saw. You can just make out one sliver of the moon in this last photo.

2007 Season Summary

It has been a while since I have been here. I guess I'll start by telling you about last year's racing season.

I participated both in club races and in two state races. The name of the club I participated in is the Mid-State Microd Club, up in New York. I drove two different cars, an open wheel car and a microd. In my open wheel car I won all the club events I participated in, four or five races. In the microd I won one race (a very close call, by one or two inches!), most of the other events I finished second and once I did not finish. In the state races I raced at Sodus, New York, and Southern Tier Track. At Sodus in the microd I finished sixth, after starting in last place and in the open wheel car I was running up front. Then I got spun by another racer but the accident was blamed on me. So, I had to go to last place. Then when we restarted there was a wreck in front and I crashed into a car and broke the shock in my car. So, I finished in 11th place.

At Southern Tier, I only raced the open wheel car. Since an important event was coming up in a few weeks we decided not to run the microd car at Southern Tier to be sure the car would be alright. I started in sixth place then I tried to pass another racer. He did not know I was there so he ran into me and the shock in my car got damaged. The car was very hard to drive after that. Then another racer crashed into me and the shock got better! The car wasn't hard to drive any more. The racer who was my biggest competition in first place wrecked, after that point I was in third place. Then the second place racer got into a wreck for which he was blamed so he got sent to the back. Now I was in second place. I got a really good restart and came into first place. On the final lap though there was a caution and when we restarted I got passed and ended up finishing the race in second place. I was pretty happy with this result because state races are very competitive.

After that there was one more race. I won the open wheel race. I was doing well in the microd but the motor faded so I only got second place. After that the season was over.

Since then I have raced at an indoor track closer to where I live. It is a road course. I raced 10 or 11 races. I don't remember my placing in all of the races, but I know that I won one race and placed second in some of the other races.

Now my Dad and I are getting ready for the upcoming 2008 racing season. I'll try to keep this updated with my progress.

The first photo is of my microd car during the 2006 racing season. The second photo is of me in my open wheel car during the 2007 season.