Lunar Eclipse

When you get to be my age, you can become fairly jaded to natural events happening in the universe – if it’s not convenient to your schedule you prefer to miss it.  Earlier this week was one of those events that I’m glad we chose not to “sleep in”.  It is rare to have a full lunar eclipse on the same evening as the Winter Solstice and this one was spectacular (the last one was in 1638 so I don’t think I will be around for the next one!).  After watching the spectacular Bears/Vikings game with the perfect outcome, I decided we should put on the alarm for 3 am so we could jump out of a warm bed, disturb the dogs, put on jackets to run outside and look at the moon and then get right back to sleep.  Well, forgot to set the special alarm but still managed to wake up at 2:40 am because I dreamt I missed the whole thing.  Then the furry kids looked at me like I was nuts since it wasn’t time for them to go out (not sure they can tell time but they do have some spatial sense that we just went to bed at midnight and this was too soon) and they were just too comfortable, curled up in their little Bambi circles but loyalists that they are, they tagged along.

It was spectacular.  It was not quite complete but this was just as good since a sliver of white light rimmed one side of the moon that hadn’t been covered yet and the blood red color was vibrant. To top it off, the sunrise the next morning was one of the best – vibrant orange and purple.  What a great 12 hour time span – starting with the Bears’ division win.