Solstice eclipse
I'm currently in Florida after having flown all day from Los Angeles. Quite the trip for a lot of reasons, not least of which was the 45+ knot tailwind which allowed us to make this in one long day rather than two...
And tonight is the start of the winter solstice... and also a total lunar eclipse. They say this won't happen again until 2094... so I'm staying up for it. I have taken a few pictures already and am going to take just a few more before I finally turn in. It's almost 3am here.
As I stand in the cold night air (you can see your breath! In Florida!) and watch the moon turn red and dark, I can almost hear the pagans screaming and dancing. What must it have meant, in ages long gone, that on this longest of all nights also had them seeing the moon undergo such a dramatic change? The fear and awe that they'd have felt must have been overpowering.
I'm glad that we live in the age we do. The awe is not lessened for the knowing of what's going on up there... and it's built upon by the reality of the fact that we can predict such things with so much accuracy. I'm going to pay for this tomorrow, but it'll be worth every moment of tonight.
And tonight is the start of the winter solstice... and also a total lunar eclipse. They say this won't happen again until 2094... so I'm staying up for it. I have taken a few pictures already and am going to take just a few more before I finally turn in. It's almost 3am here.
As I stand in the cold night air (you can see your breath! In Florida!) and watch the moon turn red and dark, I can almost hear the pagans screaming and dancing. What must it have meant, in ages long gone, that on this longest of all nights also had them seeing the moon undergo such a dramatic change? The fear and awe that they'd have felt must have been overpowering.
I'm glad that we live in the age we do. The awe is not lessened for the knowing of what's going on up there... and it's built upon by the reality of the fact that we can predict such things with so much accuracy. I'm going to pay for this tomorrow, but it'll be worth every moment of tonight.