Sunday – Full Moon – Eclipse – Transit of Venus

 Nearly full moon last night from Jack Martin and chaotic sky over Zeeland by “priemersma” at ReportIt (see picture full screen here).  Brief showers moved across the area Saturday afternoon, bringing wind gusts of 35-38 mph at Grand Rapids, Holland, Battle Creek, Ionia, Lansing and Alma.  I saw a couple of 6-8 foot long branches that were knocked down.  The odds of rain aren’t zero for today (Sunday), but they are smaller than Saturday.  We’ll also see a bit more sunshine than Saturday.  High temperatures this week will be mostly in the low-mid 70s.  We have a very brief and very partial lunar eclipse coming up at sunrise Sunday AM.  Check this link for more on that.  Tuesday, you can see something that’s only happened in your lifetime once and you will never see again…ever in your lifetime!   It’s the Transit of Venus(across the sun).  Remember you can’t look directly at the sun.  More here at Spaceweather.  Here’s this week’s Sky at a Glance.  Lots of opportunities to see the Intl. Space Station flyover this week.   The full moon (fullest at 5:12 AM Monday AM) is called the “Strawberry Moon”.  The moon is only 223,800 miles from Earth right now, so the moon will look slightly bigger than an average full moon.