The last total lunar eclipse until 2010 is behind us. I spent most of the day convinced that cloud cover would make it impossible to see the eclipse, and until about halfway through the total eclipse, I was right. I caught a glimpse of the pre-eclipse moon through banks of clouds, but that was it.
Determined to get a look at it (but uncertain if I would succeed), I set out for my apartment's hot tub around 7:15, and set the timer for a half hour when I arrived. If the jets died before the clouds, I knew I'd have missed the total eclipse - but at least it was a chance to soak my right knee (which had been bothering me all day) in hot water, and to be warm while I waited. Fortunately, the clouds broke around 7:30 and were gone by the time the eclipse ended at 7:50.
I had tried making grander plans to watch the eclipse, but such things really are more fun with someone else around to enjoy it (and keep you awake), and those plans never got off the ground. Disappointing, but at least I got to see the eclipse and my knee feels better today. It's a decent consolation prize.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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2 comments:
I really wanted to see it, and my parents and I looked for it, but we couldn't see it. Too much cloud cover. Any word on an eclipse of the sun? I remember one when I was a kid. I don't remember where we were living at the time, but I remember a sliding glass door and that it was daylight, then dark, then daylight again. An eclipse of the sun would be really cool to experience again.
Solar eclipses are much more rare. Unlike a lunar eclipse, which can be seen from anywhere on the night side of the earth, to see a total solar eclipse, (or even a partial eclipse), you have to be in the right place at the right time, because the moon only completely covers the sun's shadow over a swath of land that's maybe a couple hundred miles thick. There's a total eclipse in Augusr of this year that will be partially visible in Europe, but the path to see the total eclipse starts in China, sweeps north through Russia, and ends in the islands north of Canada.
There's an eclipse in 2017 that will be visible over much of the USA, but the path of totality passes by Boise and Portland, but is too far north for Reno. I'm hoping to travel to Iowa, which will have the longest totality, since it will be on the straightest line from the sun, through the moon, to the Earth.
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