Today is the solstice- a day for celebration. Today is the shortest day of the year and from this day on our days will get longer, minute by minute. This change usually sneaks up on me. Suddenly, one day while preparing dinner I will look out and say, “hey, it’s light outside!” But I always look forward to that time.
Last night I went outside, joined by my husband and son, and looked at the lunar eclipse. The moon was orange-red. And straight overhead. I would have liked to watch the Earth’s shadow glide off of the moon, but I was tired and the eclipse was long. I was glad I got to see the moon, as well as some stars. (As a side-note it was clear outside, maybe a thin veil of clouds, only to make everything look a little blurry, but that may have been my sleepy eyes. We have had cloudy skies for five straight days now- in normally, sunny Flagstaff- so it was a big break to see the eclipse. It’s cloudy again today.)
Many of the headlines read that this was a rare eclipse. Oh how they love to grab your attention. Lunar eclipses, where the Moon, Earth and Sun line up and the Earth’s shadow falls on the moon, are quite common. I have seen many full lunar eclipses. I remember my mom waking me up, when I was just in grade school, to see a copper penny moon hanging in the sky.
What was rare about this lunar eclipse was that it landed on the solstice, the date was rare. Probably this would have meant big things for people who use to keep track of what went on the sky- good or bad, I don’t know. But for me it was just a chance to see something amazing, our Earth’s shadow on our Moon, coloring it red.
Happy Solstice! Here is to longer days!
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