MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and
chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.
20 February 2008
Psst, lunar eclipse to start in just under 40 minutes Total eclipse in just under 2 hours if you live in north/south america, western europe, africa and eastern asia. Last one until Dec 2010.
This post is totally not eponysterical.
Grr! Envy! So I just walked all the way to the castle park with some idea of watching the moon from the undisturbed by streetlights stone bench in said park... in the cold... at three in morning... all alone. A couple of blocks from my house I notice the fog and think "is there any chance of seeing the moon?", I look up and the moon peeked out me from behind some clouds so I took it a sign and trekked on.
By the time I reach the park the fog is so intense it's rolling in like you see in scary movies. Like little dancing clouds of ghosts heading toward the park (from the graveyard, brrr) before me. You couldn't see the street corner and everything was amber, the result of a dim yellow light from the streetlamps above. Some dude bikes past me wearing a balaclava momentarily scaring the sh*t out of me. I chickened out, I didn't dare go in the park alone, so I went home.
Wow! It is now fully eclipsed and for a change our sky is clear. What a nice red color. I have seen so many of these (geek) yet it is fun to share with my ten year old son. Nevertheless, I am still not so jaded as to not enjoy a nice lunar eclipse.
It worked a little miracle for Christopher Columbus too, if you have forgotten your grammar school lessons.
We got clouds this afternoon, so I wasn't able to see any of it. Still no freezing rain or sleet as promised by the local weather people. So, no eclipse AND I still most likely have to work tomorrow. Gah!
We don't have a fancy camera, so these were the best we could do. But the good part was we could see it all from the window of our back sunroom (moonroom?) and we only went outside when we wanted to. Although with the sunroom window open it was still pretty cold. My fiancé stopped at Target and bought some cheapo binoculars, which surprisingly made for some remarkable viewing.
I could kind of see the eclipse here, but I had class during the main part of it and the parts that I could see were rather cloudy. But it was still pretty neat. The moon went away!
Hadn't seen one in over a decade & so had forgotten how the umbra makes the moon appear reddish....seen from suburban Columbus (OH) at 9:30 PM local time, it reminded me of the phrase "blood on the moon.'
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
