Tuesday, December 21, 2010

lunar eclipse on the winter solstice

So this morning was the first total lunar eclipse to fall on the winter solstice in over 300 years. Now that is an event to both behold and share so I got up at 3am so that you didn't have to; just another service we offer here in the Nikiverse.
It was the best possible viewing conditions at my house - crisp, clear, no trees and late enough that a lot of city lights were off. In fact, i don't think i have ever seen so many stars over my house.
So beautiful and still.
The moon was high in the sky directly over Orion, coppery orange and darkening when i went outside. The clearness of the sky, the chill in the air, the creeping shadow of the Earth: it all felt like a movie. I watched totality through binoculars. It was amazing and made me feel small, in a good way. I took pictures to post for you: 

yeah... about that...
I tried different settings, different zooms and even shooting through the binoculars, but not a single image turned out right. If you click to enlarge that image you can just see it in the lower right-hand corner. Maybe something magnificent things are meant to be seen in person.

2 comments:

Samantha said...

I woke up at 4:oo Am and went out, but Arbutus is so bright and dirty I couldn't find the moon, and it was probably over by then. I'm happy you got to enjoy it!

Never Too Busy said...

Someone on the radio was talking about it's pointless for some people to see it cuz of where they live, so it's good that we live in an age where you can just go online the next day and watch the video.