Orange Moon
I got up at 5:15 this morning and watched the lunar eclipse. The sky was clear, the moon was a perfect bright circle and I stood outside in my bathrobe and saw the shadow encroach at the edge and the moon turn orange. It was 28 degrees out, cold and dark and serene.
But by 6 a.m. an urgent balancing act was in play. The sky was starting to turn pink in the east. The moon in the west, now almost totally eclipsed, was quickly sinking below the rooflines of the nearby houses. I could only see it through the bare branches of the aspens between my two neighbor's houses.
At 6:30 -- at "totality" -- the eerie dimmed moon was almost gone behind the houses and the sunrise was spreading a fiery magenta over the houses on the other side. A battle of heavenly proportions was taking place above me from two different directions.
The sky got lighter, the strange diminished moon faded, then finally hid behind the roofs where it disappeared from my view. I couldn't get over how metaphysical it all was -- the fierce bold sun vanquishing an eclipsed, bloodied moon in the frigid sky above my head, and me, so insignificant and cold standing below in my jammies.
At 7 a.m. I went in and made coffee and tried to warm up.
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| Not my picture. My cameras failed me. But it looked like this. |
But by 6 a.m. an urgent balancing act was in play. The sky was starting to turn pink in the east. The moon in the west, now almost totally eclipsed, was quickly sinking below the rooflines of the nearby houses. I could only see it through the bare branches of the aspens between my two neighbor's houses.
At 6:30 -- at "totality" -- the eerie dimmed moon was almost gone behind the houses and the sunrise was spreading a fiery magenta over the houses on the other side. A battle of heavenly proportions was taking place above me from two different directions.
The sky got lighter, the strange diminished moon faded, then finally hid behind the roofs where it disappeared from my view. I couldn't get over how metaphysical it all was -- the fierce bold sun vanquishing an eclipsed, bloodied moon in the frigid sky above my head, and me, so insignificant and cold standing below in my jammies.
At 7 a.m. I went in and made coffee and tried to warm up.
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