Total Lunar Eclipse
I had never seen a total lunar eclipse until last night. Growing up I was a little science dork. I always wanted a telescope (I never got one) and would look forward to events like eclipses or meteor showers. My luck usually was horrible and on the date of the event it was usually cloudy where I lived in New Hampshire. As a result, I had never seen a total lunar eclipse until last night.
The eclipse started around 8:30 p.m. and after we got home from church I went and sat on the front porch to watch the shadow of the earth slowly creep over the moon. As I watched the sky Sadie Mae (our cat) ran around the porch until she decided the best place to be was sitting on my chest. Becks joined me when a sliver of the moon remained uncovered and we watched the eclipse together. By 10:00 p.m. the moon was completely in the shadows. Once covered it glowed a muted red color that made it look like a larger version of Mars. It was very beautiful.
As I was cleaning up the kitchen before heading to bed I went out onto the porch to take one last look at the moon. The next one does not happen until 2010 and I wanted to remember the view of the red moon among the stars and above the trees. I wish I had taken a picture but it probably would not have come out.
I took the dog for her evening constitutional last night and apparently didn’t look up at the sky once. When I got home, Matt had the news and they were saying the eclipse was visible at that moment. So we ran outside to see it, and it was unbelievably cool. I can’t believe I didn’t see it when I was walking the dog. My only excuse was that it was 20 degrees and I was willing the walk to be over soon.
I’m also kicking myself that I didn’t take a picture, but we did use the camcorder so hopefully it turned out.