If I were a superstitious person-- hey, who am I kidding, I am a superstitious person (it's my Irish side)-- anyway, the lunar eclipse last night surprised me by turning the moon blood red. This effect is called a blood moon and was expected by the astronomers, but to me, unprepared, it looked like a huge Omen hanging in the sky.
I stayed up till after three to watch for it, with one of my family members. We sat outside wrapped up on the steps, watching the moon through binoculars as it moved through the palm trees. The stars emerged brightly as the earth's shadow lengthened over the moon. The night looked lit up by an unearthly light--which of course it was. There was a blue glow on the lawn, and the bushes looked so alive that I half expected a large animal to appear through them.
It was very different from the last lunar eclipse I saw, which was in the summer of 1989. I was driving down a remote eastern New Mexico road in the high desert. By chance, it led straight as an arrow to the moon, straight for many miles, so as the eclipse proceeded, I just had to look up through my windshield. When the eclipse became total, I got out of the car on the side of the road and listened to the deep silence. The moon became a black disk surrounded by a white halo, and the stars were as brilliant as I've ever seen them.
So, last night I went to bed around 3:30, and at a little after five, another family member came and woke me up. "My taxi didn't come! Can you drive me to the airport? Like, right now?"
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