Thursday, February 21, 2008

The lunar eclipse that never was

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The full moon is seen early Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, during a total lunar eclipse near Frankfurt, Germany.


I'm totally knackered today and it's all hubby's fault.

Well, most of it, as I was a willing accomplice, but it was his idea: wake up in the middle of the night last night (or rather extremely early this morning) to watch the lunar eclipse. Which sounded like a fun thing to do at 10:00 PM when he first floated the idea. Not so fun (or funny) when we woke up at 2:30 AM, half an hour early due to having set the alarm clock wrong (oops). Still, we persevered. After a little argument over whose turn it had been to charge the camera battery (totally pointless, as camera battery charging is a man's job in our household, like taking the rubbish down or doing the hoovering, not to mention there was nothing to take a picture of, although we didn't know that at the time) we settled down to watch half an episode of Hart to Hart until it was time to get out and look up.

Which we did promptly at 3:00 AM as instructed by the BBC, but all we could see was cloud, cloud and a little more cloud for good measure. We took it in turns to keep guard for a good 40 minutes in the freezing cold (thank God for fleecy bathrobe), and the best we managed to get were a couple of glimpses of what vaguely resembled a round object with a reddish hue. Sort of. In fact, if I hadn't known it was the moon, I'd have thought it was light pollution.

We gave up eventually and went back to bed around 4:00 AM, only to wake up three hours later feeling tired and grumpy, a state that didn't improve during the day. I guess going through a major "corporate planning" exercise at work (aka holding a finger to the wind and hoping for the best, along with lots of number crunching) doesn't help - but that's a whole new post altogether. Let's just say I got home from work this evening feeling like screaming or crying, or both. And breaking things.

According to the evening paper, the next total lunar eclipse is set to occur in 2010. Which I guess is a blessing, as I couldn't cope with another night like last night any time soon. Although to be honest, two raspberry daiquiris later I feel a lot more relaxed - another one and I reckon I'll be totally chilled out.

I'm off to crush some ice.

7 comments:

Bike Drool said...

I saw it last night! We had clear skies, here in middle-America USA.

It was about 8:30-9 PM, around that time. But I have to agree with you... I walked outside, stared at it for a bit, and went back inside. I don't know? Wasn't particularly amazing.

ShadowFalcon said...

Oh no I missed it! They had a partial on here a few months ago and I forgot about that one too, luckily I was sitting out on the deck and was like "Oh the moon looks weird" and took a few pics, I figured it out later...

Shionge said...

Oh Wow...I must salute both of you for the effort really. I read about it from the news last time..okie I'll wait for 2010 then :D

Karen said...

Too cloudy here, but I applaud your efforts. Not many things are enticing enough to keep my from my precious sleep!

Betty Carlson said...

If it's any consolation, I prefer the second photo to the first!

Tinsie said...

@ Daniel: At least you actually saw it. All we managed to see is its shadow!

@ Shadowfalcon: I didn't know it was happening either, it's hubby who knew about it. Not that we saw much more than you did...

@ Shionge: It's the effort that counts, eh?

@ Karen: It was the first time ever I've agreed to such a plan. Possibly also the last.

@ Betty: Hehe, me too :-)

Kate said...

I was going to wake up to see it here . I even set my alarm clock for 3:30ish but I turned it off in my sleep. Something I evidently do often and get up late for important appointments. Thank God I can blame Greek traffic for that :-)
Saw some images on tv. Looked spectacular