JANUARY 2018 BEACON

Welcome one and all to 2018!! You may notice some new page layout in this and future editions. It’s not that I needed something to do and the old pages looked fine to me, but the files had been copied/edited/ pasted so many times that things were getting bollixed up a lot. Sometimes I’d spend more time matching fonts and sizes and making things crisp than I did anything else. Sometimes in any long term project the time comes to sever the beast at the neck and start over, so I did. I also started a new numbering convention so related things are placed together more efficiently. For the most part, it’s still the same, and I hope you like the new look and feel of the Beacon. As in the past, if you see something that looks like a link, blue underlined letters, it’s probably an active link, meaning you can just click on it and it’ll take you to the web page or open an email. The link to www.space.com below is an example, the blue underline doesn't show up well on this background, but click it anyway. There's also a page with lake level details, click the link on that one if you want to learn what really controls our lake levels. I've been getting this update since the 1970s an it's some pretty interesting stuff, now it's so much easier to access on line. This months cover honors an unusual lunar month here in January 2018. We'll have 2 full moons this month. The second is on the 31st and will be a Blue Moon, a Blood Moon, and a Super Moon. It will also feature a Total Lunar Eclipse, this is for me at least, something to celebrate, as I've said before, we don't get out much. Now with the Arctic Blast so far this season, there's a good chance for clear skies that night to enjoy the astrological festivities. The eclipse however, will be viewable only in the Southern Pacific Ocean, Australia, Asia, India, and some places I can't pronounce. For details click this link below, https://www.space.com/33786-lunar-eclipse-guide.html Despite the weather, the days are getting longer, we’ll gain about 2 minutes of daylight each day and spring’ll be here before we know it. For now, there’s a lot of work to be done planning and preparing all the activities at the club this year. I said a year ago that we were looking to make 2017 a most memorable good time for all, and with Pat and Nancy at the helm my prediction came to pass. Now it’s time to lend our time and efforts to Randy and Linda. There’s plenty of opportunity to get involved, we still need to fill some job slots. Let’s give them all the help we can, come to the club events, and bring friends and family. Together we’ll make 2018 as good a year as there’s ever been. Blue Skies Following Seas, Ron