Eclipse

Given that last night's lunar eclipse was the second celestial event this month, I was hoping for some clear skies. Earlier this month, cloud cover (for almost the first time all summer, of course) pretty much ruined views of the Perseid meteor shower. Last night was perfect.

My internal alarm woke me up before 2 am and with the appropriate layers of fleece I was able to wander around on the deck admiring the moon, the Pleiades, gazillions of stars and more meteors than I saw during the "shower" earlier in August. By the way, the Pleiades is the constellation represented in the logo that Subaru cars show on the front grille.

The eclipse grew slowly, with less and less of the moon lit by the sun's direct light. At totality, around 3 am, the moon looked like a pale orange ball in the western sky. This color was the result of the sun's light bending as it passed through the earth's atmosphere, with the short wavelengths being the ones bending the most, hence illuminating the moon hiding in the earth's shadow.

Nights around the full moon are pretty spectacular around here, as the moon rises over the peaks on the eastern side of the Lake and reflects on the water that we can see below. Pretty nice, I'd say!