watching the moon fade
Mornings like this I wish I owned a high-powered telescope with a digital camera attachment. I own an old thirty-five-millimeter Pentax with a telescopic lens. It’s not a high-powered one. Unfortunately the flash has been broken for several years. I can only get a decent picture outside at high noon.
A few days ago I read an article, online, about the total lunar eclipse scheduled for this morning. It sounded like something I’d be interested in watching. I’ve seen a solar eclipse before, but never witnessed a total lunar eclipse.
Around two-thirty this morning, as I was going to bed, the article crossed my mind. I considered sitting my alarm clock for five (the article indicated the eclipse would start around that time in my area). Amazingly my internal alarm woke me around four-forty.
I went outside to find an advantages location for viewing the event. The trees in the backyard blocked my view of the orange orb. I pulled a folding lawn chair onto the front walkway. Sitting in my front yard, in my pajamas, I watched the moon fade.
It wasn’t as exciting as I had anticipated. Unlike a solar eclipse, where a black orb slides across a brighter one, this eclipse appeared more like a shadow fluttering over the moon. It looked a lot like the shadow of a leaf cluster, wobbling over a patio table, on a windless afternoon. A small shadow, just right of the center, grew slowly, like something eating away at the surface of the moon from the inside out. The satellite faded as if passing behind an invisible cloud.
As it faded, I made a few trips inside, to the bathroom and the fridge, changed clothes and pulled out the laptop to do a little research on the phenomena. I found some great information on the NASA Eclipse Home Page http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse but never got the live webcast to work.
It was seventy-five degrees, around six-twenty, when the eclipse reached totality from my front yard in Norman, Oklahoma. Not a big deal. The moon was there, a dark ball, not black, just faded, as if it had become a shadow itself.
Then a tiny sliver of light emerged along the upper left edge. That tiny sliver shone brighter than I ever remembered seeing the moon shine in my life. The song, “There’s a Light in the Darkness” form “Rocky Horror Picture Show” played in my head as I watched the thin strip of light sinking behind the tree-line at the end of my street.
As I lost sight of the shadowed moon, wearing a gleaming beanie, I retreated inside for another trip to the potty. For a moment I considered chasing the moon. I could drive westward and keep watching the cap topping the moon broaden on the horizon. Grabbing the camera, I headed out again. Sunlight invaded the eastern sky.
By seven A.M. I was watching a recap of the eclipse on the morning news. The eclipse was no longer visible from the ground in Oklahoma City. But I had a nice view of the event for a few wee hours of the early morning. My favorite time of the day if I don’t have to get up for it.
tips from author, editor, publisher Selina Rosen
For some great writing tips listen to an interview with author Selina
Rosen, of Yard Dog Press,
www.yarddogpress.com
http://www.yarddogpress.com
She is being interviewed by Chris for Cubicle 17 at Nasfic
listen at
www.escapefromcubicle17.com
http://www.escapefromcubicle17.com/2007/08/18/efc17-001-selina-rosen/
SoonerCon 2008 prep
Went to a SoonerCon www.soonercon.info Meeting last night. It was great. I got to see a lot of people I enjoy being around. Unfortunately my main minion, Miss Dion, didn’t tag along.
I volunteered to work SinnerCon, an event during the convention, because I missed out on SinnerCon at SoonerCon 2007. I was working in the Con Suite, listening to some wonderful filk, and then hanging out with Vaughn Armstrong. Which made it worth missing anything. Vaughn is a fantastic fellow, and I am very grateful that I got to spend so much time with him.
Of course there is a lot to do between now and the next SoonerCon. There will be a lot of work and a ton of fun. Getting to know my SoonerCon friends a little better is a big part of the fun. Though, I feel, I know some of them pretty well after last night.
I’ll be attending several writing conferences and science fiction conventions over the next year. Hope I can squeeze in a little writing between conferences, conventions, and traveling.
Next up, Norman Galaxy of Writers www.nonprofitpages.com/normangalaxy Sept meeting, then Trick Con Treat www.trickcontreat.com/mambo in October. Y’all come.
