Sandy Hook Clouds and Meteorology

A Meteorologist's View of Sandy Hook Lighthouse
See a horseshoe crab's view of the lighthouse.
Watch the phases of the moon here.
June 8, 2004 Transit of Venus
Jupiter - from Sandy Hook
Field trip weather information

A cloudless morning sky with low humidity.	High cirrus clouds buffeted by jet stream winds.
Fair weather afternoon clouds typical of periods of high pressure.	Cumulus clouds that may bring precipitation.
Rain that evaporates before it hits the ground is known as virga.	Stratus clouds at sunset.
Man-made clouds. Contrails from jets heading for Europe and below them a jet preparing to land at Kennedy Airport.	Unsettled weather conditions exhibit a variety of cloud cover. How many cloud types can you identify in this picture?
	The image to the left shows sunset at Sandy Hook on the evening of the winter solstice. On the summer solstice the sun will set near the right side of this panel (Check back after June 21st for that image.). The sun sets in the southwest around December 21.

	On Christmas day, 2000, a partial solar eclipse visible in the lower 48 states covered nearly 40% of the sun's disk. These photographs were taken from the Ocean Institute's Solar Observatory (the picnic table on the south side of Building 53). Take a video tour of Sandy Hook. Beginning of eclipse (upper left). Solar camera image of midpoint of the eclipse (Above). At high magnification the camera detects what appear to be sunspots. This is eclipse was near the solar maximum in the current sunspot cycle.

The November 8, 2003 total lunar eclipse as seen at the Ocean Institute's Lunar Observatory (our telescope perched on the trunk of my car). These images were taken moments before totality. Watch the changing phases of the moon here and a video clip of the close passage of Mars in August 2003.
	December 30, 2000 snowstorm. A halo around the sun is a clue of an approaching storm with lots of moisture (left). The Sandy Hook lighthouse a day later at the beginning of "the big storm of December 2000". (lower left) Three days and many hours of shovelling after the storm (below).

"Storms on the sun"

In November-2003 our annual beach surveys were interrupted by a great astronomical event. We were treated to exceptional sunspot activity. Students spent a week observing some of the largest solar "storms"
ever recorded.

Never look at the sun except through special "Eclipse Shades" or other safety glasses.

For other astronomy programs, click here.

It's always safe to admire the lighthouse. And if you want to climb it, come down on a weekend between April and November from 12:00-4:00.