Although the weather here in the MD/DC/VA area has been in the 20s and feeling bitter cold, today is the first official day of winter. The winter solstice! The shortest day of the year! The only good thing about today? Now that it has officially started we are one day closer to the end of winter. And, three days from now (my birthday!) will be just the slightest bit longer.
Last night I went to bed at 11pm. At 3:13am my alarm went off, I woke up, threw on sweats and a coat and stumbled outside. I dragged Michael along on the way. At 3:18am I was back, warm and cozy in my bed, wondering why I had bothered. I wanted to see the lunar eclipse. As I said yesterday, I stumbled upon it and felt cheated that I had to go to sleep at a decent hour for work. I didn't want to miss out. The article said 3:17am would be the best "moment" to view the coppery red of the eclipse. Standing in the back alley peering into the sky between two apartment buildings half asleep and freezing, I wasn't overly impressed. The moon was, in fact, red. Which I've since come to understand is due to only indirect sunlight hitting its surface while in the Earth's shadow. Luckily, it was a clear night. I even saw a few stars struggling to shine through the city smog. Today I've researched some more and found the next lunar eclipse will be in June 2011, but not viewable from North America. A lunar eclipse on December 21 (which is significant because the moon in high in the sky and easily viewable--even with building obstructions) won't happen again in my lifetime. So I did have a once in a lifetime experience. Makes me feel a bit better. I tried taking a picture, which was silly as my point and shoot only registered a gray sky. Here are some super cool pics (in case you missed your one and only opportunity, even though I warned you). The moon looked like the first picture when I saw it.
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