Saturday's Lunar Eclipse - east coast USA
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 2:36 pm
Anyone else check this out? It was pretty cool and eerie, even during the light of early evening.
Many people poo-poo the lunar eclipse, but in many ways it's as dramatic and certainly more accessible than its solar cousin (you can stare right at it, for one). To boot, it's fun to stop people in the street who have no idea and say "hey, look at the moon. Weird, huh?" and they're like "wow, what's up?" and you want to berate them about how this is such a natural earth-science sort of event they should be so totally aware of it to feel the same shiver down the spine that you feel, but then politely say "well, it's a lunar eclipse and the earth is so exactly positioned as to block the sun from its face for 40 minutes or so. It should be a full moon right now but it's all dim and orange instead" and they say "wow. thanks a lot".
Many people poo-poo the lunar eclipse, but in many ways it's as dramatic and certainly more accessible than its solar cousin (you can stare right at it, for one). To boot, it's fun to stop people in the street who have no idea and say "hey, look at the moon. Weird, huh?" and they're like "wow, what's up?" and you want to berate them about how this is such a natural earth-science sort of event they should be so totally aware of it to feel the same shiver down the spine that you feel, but then politely say "well, it's a lunar eclipse and the earth is so exactly positioned as to block the sun from its face for 40 minutes or so. It should be a full moon right now but it's all dim and orange instead" and they say "wow. thanks a lot".