Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse

The full moon on Dec. 20th at 6:10 p.m. EST:

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The eclipse has begun, 1:35 a.m. EST

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Hey, besides being the Winter Solstice and the day of a lunar eclipse, today is also a palindrome, 12-21.

O.K., back to bed for another little cat nap.

3:30 a.m.

Blaze told me to wake him up for this part, so I tried, but he told me it was too bright outside and he had been having a good dream, and promptly went back to sleep.

The fully eclipsed moon:

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This was the hardest phase to photograph. I don't have a tripod, and I had a very difficult time holding the camera steady, so that the moon didn't appear to be bouncing.

When the girls were little (and we lived much closer to nature, so the darkest part of the year really meant something), I started the tradition of giving them something related to light or the sun on the Winter Solstice each year. The solar powered keychain that played "You are My Sunshine" was a mistake, but other than that, it's a good tradition. I am continuing it this year with the gift that Blaze will get when he wakes up in the morning.

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We will be spending an awful lot of the holiday break in the car and I'm hoping that this, along with over 5 hours of Magic Tree House audio books on the Ipod, will keep him entertained.

Back to bed. There are still a couple hours until dawn.

1 comment:

Anet said...

I'm so glad you shared this... me being way too tired after our trip to Chicago to stay up!
I can never get a good shot of the moon!

Great gift for Blaze, looks like such fun. Have a wonderful and safe trip.

Crafty Crow