Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

After a discouraging forecast, the sky cleared, and looking out the window a bit after 9 (EST) we could clearly see the eclipse starting. We went outside together shortly before totality. The effect was weird: the moon dimmed a bit more, and then brightened, as clouds drifted away. And then they drifted back. We didn't get the red or orange color the nice people at NASA predicted (based on lack of recent major volcanic eruptions), but we enjoyed the view. There were very few other people out there; some were probably in the park, and it was a cold night.

My latest botmo package arrived Thursday, and this afternoon I took a good look at it under natural light. This month is full of interesting inclusions (in quartz), and lapis lazuli and such. I sprung for the Mother of All Magpies package this time; apparently I was the lucky person who got three of the really cool Persian lapis beads. I was going to say that my favorite were the shiny black squares, but then I remembered the translucent beads with the long thin black inclusions. Now I need to think about what to do with all these shinies, and with last month's ("blood and roses") garnets.

The first crocuses in my neighborhood are blooming: deep yellow (almost orange) dwarf crocuses, next to one of the nearby buildings. (The patch of light purple ones in this userpic, which are usually first locally, aren't showing buds yet.)

The weather this evening didn't match any of the recent forecasts (which included snow, rain, cloudiness, and thunderstorms). Instead, we got a good look at the lunar eclipse, or as good a look as is possible when the Moon rises already eclipsed, and totality is past by the time it's above the nearby hills and buildings. (It was still pretty close to total when we went outside, just over half-eclipsed when we went back inside. There was nice red color on the eclipsed part.

I was boggled, reading LiveJournal this morning, to see that three of my friends had seen their first lunar eclipse last night.

I sort of assume that people--certainly adults, and certainly science fiction fans--have seen eclipses. I've spent a couple of hours on a Toronto rooftop late at night watching one, and gone out into Inwood Hill Park on a cold winter night for another.

When I was seven, my parents did the pinhole camera thing for us for a partial solar eclipse. I mentioned this to cattitude who said "Me too. Nine"--same eclipse, same area of the country. A few years back, I was part of the crowd in Bryant Park for another partial solar eclipse, conveniently at standard office lunch time; I wasn't too surprised to be the only person in my department (of seven) who went out for it, but cheerfully borrowed someone's Mylar glasses to look at the sun for a moment (yes, Mom, I know--some risks are worth it) along with doing the pinhole camera thing and looking at the odd shadows. Solar eclipses are trickier: rarer and briefer (I've never seen a full solar eclipse), and at least once I've looked forward to one, and awakened to a cloudy sky that never cleared enough to show us anything.

Along with wondering who else I need to show a lunar eclipse to, I'm wondering if there's something that half of you would be surprised that I've never seen. (Other than a large collection of television programming, that is.)

Lunar eclipses over the next several years are listed here (as well as numerous other places). There will be two total lunar eclipses in 2004, and then none until 2007.

The nice thing about the eclipse being so early in the evening, local time, is that I've been able to watch it from my warm living room, without having to put shoes on (my ankle is bothering me). Yes, I'd get a better effect from out in the park: but I wouldn't be there, I'd be sitting inside regretting missing it, and tonight I can sit inside and not miss it.