Moon Tea

Long time readers of this column know that my favorite topics are a) college football traditions, b) bashing the BCS, and c) weather and the change of seasons.  Since I am writing this by the light of the harvest moon, the week’s episode is firmly focused on the latter. 

The Harvest Moon is the name for the full moon nearest the Autumn equinox (this year on September 22).  It is so named because traditionally it provided light for farmers to continue their harvest well into the night.  If it seems a little brighter or a little more prominent than most full moons, there is a reason for that.  At this time of the year in the northern hemisphere, the elliptical (the path the sun and moon seems to follow through the sky) has a very acute angle with the horizon.  Normally, there is a lag between sunset and the rise of a full moon when everything gets dark.  At the harvest moon, this lag happens to be at a minimum so the full lights the sky as soon as the sun sets.  Earthsky.org, one of my favorite websites, has a great article explaining this. 

As you gaze into the beautiful blue or orange moon rising in the east, it may seem bigger than normal.  Trust me- its not.  This is just an optical illusion; the moon always looks bigger near the horizon.  But the brightness thing is sort of real, all because of the angle of elliptical.  Do you know the special significance of the constellations that lie in the elliptical?  They’re called the zodiac!  Wicked cool, huh?

My daughter and I are fascinated with stuff like astronomy and phenology (the study of animal/plan adaptations to seasonal change, not to be confused with phrenology, the pseudoscience of making judgments about people by their skull shape).  This week, as an experiment, we decided to make moon tea.  What’s moon tea?  You’ve heard of sun tea; leaving out a jar of water with tea bags in the hot sun and waiting for it to cook into tea.  Well, moon tea is the same idea, but instead of the sun’s rays heating the water, you allow the magical silvery moonlight to infuse the tea with its mystical energy. 

Ok, now I’ve lost some of you.  Lets give it some context.

My daughter loves JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien almost as much as I do.  Her favorite films are by the famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, especially My Neighbor Totoro.  So when I told her we would try to use the power of the full moon to capture some magic in the water, she was bouncing off the walls with excitement. 

So we tried a little experiment.  We bought three clear jars and added water.  The first we labeled 0% and kept in a closet away from any light.  The second we labeled 50% and exposed to a half moon last week for a night.  And the third with “100%” sits outside in the glory of the Harvest moon.  Then we will conduct a taste test to see if the full moon’s team has absorbed more power than the others.  (spoiler alert: thanks to the placebo effect, it will).

I know what you’re thinking.  Hans, that’s not science.  This trial should be double blinded instead of labeled and it should be conducted in multiple sites to minimize measurement bias.  And you’re right.  Why do you think I am describing my material and methods to a friendly band of colleagues stretching from the Philippines to Sweden (yes, the Underdog Contest is international!).  You can repeat my experiment and confirm my findings.

And what are my findings?  That I have a happy little girl who still believes in magic. 

Back to the magic of the gridiron next week.

Fight on,

Hans

PS: The friendly people at Fresno State will be collecting donations at the Colorado-Boise State game this week.  Very cool.  Please give to the Red Cross to help.