The Eclipse of the Blood Flower Supermoon

The Moon passed through the shadow of the Earth very early this morning. There hasn't been an eclipse like this in two years, and it was more remarkable because the Moon was at nearly the closest approach it ever makes, so it appeared a bit larger than normal. How much larger? My camera has a 120x zoom, and a more distant Moon will just fill the screen. The picture below shows how it looked last night before the eclipse began.

I got up at 3:00 AM just so you wouldn't have to! At that point, the shadow was already covering part of the Moon.

I didn't want to stay up all night, so I looked 45 minutes later to check on the progress.

By 4:20 AM, totality was reached and the very dim Moon was glowing red, the result of the red part of the sun's spectrum being refracted through the Earth's atmosphere. 

At this point the Moon was far dimmer and stars were visible nearby. It's the first time I've been able to photograph stars and the Moon in the same picture.

By 4:30, the Moon was beginning to emerge from the shadows, so I took one last shot, and went back to bed. I had a class to teach in the morning!

A Worm Moon Rising, and a Very Far-away Plane

One of the really sad casualties of the pandemic was the ending of visiting our good friends on the night of the full moon rising. Their house has a fine view of the eastern horizon, and the rising moon is almost always a dramatic sight. After a hiatus of more than a year, we have had our vaccine shots and finally felt we could gather safely in a small group for the tradition tonight. And it was quite a sight.

Our eastern horizon is the composed of the alpine peaks that surround Yosemite Valley, and in the twilight picture above, one can see the snowy peaks of the high country. The snow is a welcome sight, but it is still too little to put a dent in the second year of drought conditions.

I was kind of amazed that I could just make out some trees on the ridges below the peak. The camera (which I just love) is an appropriate point-and-shoot for fools like me who need a 60x zoom for capturing birds and moonrises.

As the moon lifted above the horizon, I thought it was passing a power line when I realized the line was moving. It was a jet plane with a contrail following! I can't even begin to estimate how far away the plane was...

The Worm Moon refers to the thawing of the soil, allowing worms to start doing what worms do. We don't see much of a difference here in the warm climes of California, but the worms are certainly active in the garden right now.

This moon is also a "super-moon", meaning the moon is relatively closer to the Earth in this part of its orbit, so it appears a bit larger and brighter than "normal". There will be four "super-moons" this year.

 

The Super Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse from under a Rainstorm

By all rights none of these pictures should exist. It was one of the astronomical events of the year, the...um..."Super-duper Blood Red Wolf Full Moon and Eclipse Extravaganza", or something like that. But unfortunately we had an 80% chance of rain for most of the evening in our area so I didn't expect to see any of it.

And yet...I couldn't help going outside every few minutes on the off chance that a break in the storm might occur. About the time of totality I could see clearing off to the west, and the opening was moving east at an excruciatingly slow pace. But I finally saw a patch of light through the clouds, and then there it was.

So tonight's post documents only a small portion of the celestial event, but I felt privileged to see just this much. After about 15-20 minutes the next wave of clouds moved over and blocked out the moon once again.

If there is any consolation, I got a somewhat interesting video of the clouds moving across the moon, accompanied by narration from Zoey the cat, who couldn't understand why I wasn't picking her up. The jerkiness in the middle of the video resulted from the kitty claws digging into my leg as she hopped up into my lap.

The

Yeah, I'm Still Here (and there, and everywhere): SUPER MOON!

Hey world! I'm still here...and there...and it feels like everywhere, and we are having a great time exploring the geology of the Colorado Plateau. This has been one of our cooler trips ever, with spring-like temperatures (and windstorms), so we are enjoying it as much as possible. Since the last post, we've been to Grand Canyon, Cedar Mesa, Mesa Verde, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and lots of other wonders. We are actually just two more days from being home.

I know the SUPER MOON was overblown, as usual, but a full moon rising at Arches National Park is nothing to sneer at. It was gorgeous, and if you want to see it supermoon style, you just up the zoom on the camera, and voila!

A morning or two later, we could watch the moon setting among the Entrada Sandstone cliffs...

Lots of pictures, lots of adventures in geology to talk about. We'll see you in a few days!