Reflections on the Eclipse

The celestial trifecta was certainly something to behold, if you could see it. The long white clouds of my nation of residence did not allow me to catch a glimpse of the red moon created by the lunar eclipse on the winter solstice, but I have enjoyed reading about other people's experiences and certainly seeing other people's photos.

The result was quite dramatic and, in certain circles of geographic perfection, lasted long enough for whole families or star parties to remark on the astronomical fascination provided by such a mundane thing as one celestial body moving past another.

Some random thoughts on some of (IMHO) the best photos on the night:

Is that the Moon or Mars? It certainly looks like the latter, even if it is definitely the former. Staring at such a vision would possibly have moved a modern-day H.G. Wells to take pen to paper (or perhaps stylus to Blackberry or fingers to iPhone or iPad) and write about invaders from another world. The more I stare at this one, the more I hear the first movement from Holst's The Planets — "Mars, the Bringer of War." The Moon does look angry, possessed, perhaps demonic. The one thing it isn't is bulging — take away the red tint, massive though it is, and you get our friendly satellite, the one that gives us the tides and keeps us alive in other ways as well.

Dan Brown probably wants this for the cover of the illustrated edition of The Lost Symbol. That is one very powerful image — a reminder that the tallest of buildings, if kept in astrophysical perspective, is but a fraction of the height of the universe. The other element that is striking is that those two little red lights, paired with the two slightly larger lights just below, make the building look like it's possessed, as in the house from The Amityville Horror. In that instance, the mouth would be just out of the bottom of the photo. Not that the Washington Monument is going to take one look at the Moon and then utter a howl that would scare an army of werewolves; but if a building that big has a giant pig running round it, I don't want to know about it.

This one shows the progression of the eclipse and is a wonderful way to teach students, adults, and even professors just how an eclipse works. These obviously didn't happen in the space of a few hundred rapid-fire clicks of a digital camera, but they did follow on one after another relatively quickly in celestial terms. The addition, of course, of the red Moon was icing on the cake, really. These shots are so well framed as well as to look like the Moon was stopping long enough for a statuesque pose.

Speaking of statues, here's our last photo, the Moon shining (or being unshined) next to the Savior of the World Monument in San Salvador, El Salvador. This monument looks like that all the time, as if the guy is about to launch into a lecture or a sermon or a parable or something; but with the Moon right there, it looks like he's saying, "I give you this as an example of the greatness of God" or something like that. And even thought the Moon is red, it doesn't make me feel as bad as I was feeling while contemplating the Amityville Washington Monument.

At any rate, I'd love to hear from you if you did see the eclipse live. If you have posted photos, please send me the links.