A Ghostly Sight at 3:00am

I had a wake up call at 3:00am on early Tuesday morning.  I got out of my warm bed and stepped outside in the freezing weather.  Why, you ask?  For a chance to see a total lunar eclipse (i.e. Moon falls in Earth's shadow) on the same day as the winter solstice (i.e. when Sun is farthest away from Earth).

I read somewhere that the two events are happening together after a few hundred years and will not happen again for another few hundred years.

So how was it?  Beautiful!  I had never seen a "coppery" moon.  Earlier in the night the moon was bright white, and during the eclipse it was totally orange... a ghostly sight indeed.  I didn't take any pictures.  The beauty of some things just cannot be captured in a camera no matter how hard one tries.

I just captured the sight with my eyes and let it sink in me.

It was beautiful.  This is what life is all about.

2 comments:

Priyank said...

Hi Neeraj,

I agree it was beautiful. Obviously, I tried really hard to capture the beauty in my camera.. haha!

btw few corrections: on winter solstice (and summer solstice), its only the earth's axis that is tilted furthest away from sun. This occasion will reoccur in 2094.

And all the best in switching to wordpress! Let me know if you need anything.

Priyank

Neeraj | www.bharari.net said...

Thanks for the correction, Priyank!