… with my black alpaca thrown o’er meself, I’m watching it now, the lunar eclipse, with my mother’s clunky old binoculars.
How is it I awoke, without an alarm, at exactly 3:17? Exactly the moment one was told to wake up to see the thing in its prime?
And here’s this full gorgeous orange-shaded orb, surrounded by bright stars, and… a shooting star! As if the spectacle weren’t amazing enough, a shooting star just shot by the moon…
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I keep going out there to sneak a peak at its copperiness, getting cold, rushing back in…
There’s a thin lighter-orange line that curves along its edges — the faintest halo — and — it’s so celestial — I’m seeing the vast smudges on its surface as angel wings…
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Here’s the closest rendering I find in Google’s image stock.
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Update, 3:57.
You’ve changed.
You’re not the orange I recall.
The moon is now a different ball.
You’ve changed.
It’s silvering up again.
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No, no — now you’re gray, with an immense brightness along your crown, like a north pole, or like a sunrise.
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Now the moon’s down among the clouds and the trees, and it’s just as well. So cold out there.
December 21st, 2010 at 8:13AM
There was a total lunar eclipse a few years ago– visible in the DC area, in the evening, and not so cold. In fact, lunar eclipses aren’t rare– and, as you might expect, Wikipedia has the whole story, including separate entries on each recent eclipse.
I watched that one outside the Bethesda Row Barnes & Noble and explained to people about the moon first being eaten by the dragon, and then… coming out of the dragon’s other end.
December 21st, 2010 at 8:23AM
MattF: Funny – about the dragon’s other end.
It must have been a good eclipse if you could see it clearly with all the lights of ‘thesda twinkling about you.
December 21st, 2010 at 11:46AM
it was cold and wet and cloudy here on the west coast
decided to just check out the live NASA Ustream links
but it didn’t hold my attention
with your account now I’m bummed I didn’t throw open the door and go outside
but it was so cozy inside- watched Holiday Inn – had a great sleep- priceless.
wish it could have been like the time I watched Mars at its closest point while doing a midnight swim and 80 degrees in the wine country- talk about oranges and reds!
Last night apparently Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted it was long and boring to him too– so, I don’t feel too bad. Glad you (in the east) got to enjoy it
and still
A reverence for the starry skies.
a deep one.
December 21st, 2010 at 12:02PM
Yum. Almost as good as an eclipse.
December 10th, 2011 at 1:24PM
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