Yet another contrail

Clear skies have made it a good time for contrails. With this one it was the way it spreads apart in places and comes together in other places to make quite a regular pattern that looks like the loops I used to draw in class for stationary waves. I've always thought the contrails are manipulated by high altitude winds but I can't see how winds can pull two trails in opposite directions or push them together. 

Equinox sunset time

We revisited the 3 amazing stone circles above Boot for the Equinox. I noticed going home that the Sun still had a while to set and it was beyond 6pm. Now on Equinox, logic would say to me that sunrise should be 6am and sunset 6pm. That got me thinking. It probably works at sea level on the Greenwich Meridian in this country. Sunset is always later here on the west coast than in London. Today we are 15 minutes later than in London but that doesn't account for all of the time difference I noticed. This article explains about which part of the Sun the measurement is taken from and also about equilux day. 

Strange contrails

I was intrigued when one plane came over leaving a contrail which looked like the white line dashes down the middle of a UK road. Camera wouldn't focus and it began to break up. But then another came past very soon afterwards and did exactly the same thing - it's the one on the left in the picture. I can only imagine that there are bands of slightly different humidity up there. It was a windy day, the sort when stationary waves form in the air over the mountains. The usual sign is lenticular cloud. Maybe it was such a day but with air humidity too low for cloud formation. Then the aeroplane exhausts might seed condensation in the more humid parts.

Shap meteorological station

We know that Shap is used by the Met Office in forecasts but we've now found what must be their data gathering station in Wet Sleddale. I don't think this site is for this Met Office weather station. When I looked at it recently it said the page was last updated in May 2022. But it does say about the data package it was using which was interesting. 

Growing biofuel

On Great Burney we found these enclosures of willow that will be being grown to be chipped for power stations. It's really interesting to see this use of the land because coppicing for charcoal was an industry in the area for centuries until recently. An interesting modern take on a traditional industry.

Partial eclipse of the Moon

Up early this morning to look at the Moon. At first sight, it didn't look anything unusual but then the penny dropped that this was actually a Full Moon. Earth's shadow was covering part. I should have looked closer to see how the shadow compared to a normal moon terminator. 

Why are there so many granite erratics?

This is the Gray Bull in Wet Sleddale - it is the largest of the Shap granite erratics around but there are a lot of them, deposited by glaciers during the last Ice Age. I always notice erratics more in the Shap area and am wondering why. Is it that this granite is more prone to being carried by glaciers? Is it that this beautiful stone is so obvious that I notice them more? Or is it that this area is rolling wet moorland with few crags? It hasn't been improved much as farmland. I'm guessing it must be a combination of the second and third reasons.

Tanker earth wire

We were parked behind this tanker when I noticed a coil of green and yellow wire on the back. That's the Earth wire. The process of driving on insulating tyres causes charge to build up on a vehicle, giving it a high potential. Earth has a potential of 0V. This can cause sparks as the potential difference causes electric charge to flow, with maybe explosive consequences if the tanker contains powder or flammable liquid. The Earth wire must be connected to the ground before the vehicle is emptied.

Gregorian Calendar

I spotted St Gregory in the window of the church at Welford Park, of Bake Off fame. He is the patron saint of this church. In the window, he is a pope and I assumed he was one responsible for the Gregorian Calendar. I was only 1000 years out. It was a later Gregory who instituted the reform whereby the leap year day is removed on the start year of every fourth century. There was also some correction of dates to get the Spring Equinox back to March 21st. This is all important to get the date of Easter correct. If you're not familiar with that controversy, try Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. It was this first Pope Gregory who sent the missionaries to the Saxons that led to the controversy in the British Isles. The calendar stuff is all because the orbit of the Earth round the Sun is not perfectly a whole number of rotations of the Earth.