This much, I suppose: leave a perfectly good bed, warm and soft and comfortable (also covered in cat fur), reluctantly pull on the thermal undies, the near-clean clothes, a hoodie, gloves, and wool cap, start the water heating for some mega-caffeinated coffee, grab the binoculars and head out into the 28° F. morning air to see the first total lunar eclipse to occur during the winter solstice since A. D. 1638.
I was braced for disappointment: there was intermittent cloud cover and my back yard is not an ideal viewing spot, what with the big-ass mercury vapor streetlight in the alley, but lo and behold! The streetlight was out (as it sometimes is; who knows why) and the clouds parted periodically just enough to allow me fleeting glimpses of totality at around 3:17 a. m. (not my pics, by the way):
And yes, the moon was precisely this color! Still, I'm less impressed with totality than when the moon emerges from the Earth's shadow (which it did around 4:00 a. m.):
This, but many times brighter!
So, I'll be going to work today a bit groggy, a bit bleary-eyed, but with the sure knowledge that my Geek Cred remains intact.
How's yours?
1 comment:
We saw the totality but missed the reemergence. We were in Glen Burnie Md.
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