Rare Supermoon Total Eclipse Coming This Month

Look up to the night sky Sunday night, September 27^th, and watch a type of outer space light show that hasn’t happened in more than 30 years—a supermoon combined with a total lunar eclipse.

The moon will pass through the earth’s shadow for more than an hour. The moon will remain dimly visible and have a red or copper hue during the eclipse. For that short time it will be called a blood moon because of its brief color change.

During the full eclipse, the moon will be at its perigee—the closest point it passes near the earth during its oval orbit. That’s when the moon will appear 14% larger to the naked eye and be called a supermoon. A total lunar eclipse and a supermoon are separate occurrences that rarely occur together. This won’t happen again until 2033.

NASA engineers issued a report pinpointing the time of the lunar eclipse. The larger-than-normal supermoon will begin to dim at 8:11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The earth’s shadow will fall across the moon at 9:07 p.m. At 10:11 p.m. EDT the blood moon will be in total eclipse for 12 minutes. The NASA report describes the moon as having a ghostly copper color until it emerges from the earth’s shadow.

All 72 minutes of the celestial event will be visible in eastern and central North America, all of South America and parts of Western Europe.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), NASA’s star gazing satellite, will record every second of the eclipse. Scientists can use the LRO to study moon measurements, such as surface temperatures, that are not easily available during the normal phases of the moon.

Star observers have studied the movement of the moon since ancient times. Many cultures attached superstitions to the moon’s temporary disappearances during eclipses. A few of those irrational fears included stories that the moon was attacked by hungry demons or an angry sun. Some stories were based on the sun and moon quarrelling. Some modern stories about moon eclipses describe them as omens of death and worldwide destruction.

One superstition all of us could use is to keep our fingers crossed that the night sky will be clear on Sunday. That way we can get a view of the supermoon eclipse. Otherwise we’ll have to wait until 2033 when it happens again.

Thanks for reading this blog. Check back here in a week for another interesting entry. See my website at www.joevlatino.com   

Peanut Butter Has No Nuts, No Butter

One dictionary’s definition of peanut butter describes it as “a brown, oily paste made from peanuts that are a good source of protein, healthy fats, fiber and vitamins.” It’s a staple in our diet, and Americans spend $800 million on peanut butter every year.

Even though peanut butter is popular and healthy, it suffers from an identity crisis. Calling it a paste or spread is more accurate since it contains no butter. The majority of peanut eaters think they are consuming nuts, but they actually are eating legumes.

Peanuts grow underground and are inside pods similar to peas and beans that are other members of the legume family. Nuts grow on trees.

Peanuts we eat today originated from strains that grew wild thousands of years ago in South American forests. Archeologists found evidence that ancient Incas ate a form of peanut butter when they mashed wild peanuts into a paste.  

The oval peanut seed was roasted, salted and eaten as a snack food long before peanut butter arrived and later joined with jelly to become a popular sandwich. Its present form can be traced to the last part of the 19th century.

 

Peanut butter, as we know it now, started in 1890 when a St. Louis physician developed a peanut paste for his patients who had bad teeth. The doctor, whose name was lost in historical records, wanted to give his patients a nutritious food that was easy to chew. In 1922, entrepreneur and inventor Joseph L. Rosefield patented a churning process that made peanut butter smoother and kept the oil from separating.

The Swift & Company was the first business to pay royalties to Rosefield to use his churning process in 1928. The company and its brand later took the name Peter Pan. It remains among the top three biggest selling brands of peanut butter. The other two leading brands are Skippy and Jif.

Rosefield started selling Skippy brand peanut butter in 1932. That was ten years after he invented the process that made Peter Pan a success. Two years later he came out with the first crunchy style spread and took the lead away from Peter Pan.

Coming late into what could be called the peanut butter wars, Proctor & Gamble stared selling Jif peanut butter in 1955. Jif’s taste was sweeter than Peter Pan or Skippy, and it soared to the top of sales. It remains ahead of all other brands today.

J.M. Smucker Co. now owns the Jif brand and operates the largest peanut butter production plant in the world. The plant makes 250,000 jars of Jif peanut butter every day.

U.S. consumers spend millions of dollars annually to buy more than 65 national brands of peanut butter and hundreds of other brands manufactured regionally and from cottage industries. The money peanut butter brings in definitely isn’t peanuts.

Thanks for reading this blog. Come back here later this month to read another interesting subject. See my web site at www.joevlatino.com.