Stage 4 - the real eclipseAbout the eclipse last night . . . this was the first one I’ve watched in a long time. I’ve found I’m into my fourth stage of viewing lunar eclipses. Stage 1 – They were a thrill – something unusual happening in the skies. I particularly remember one freezing December night about 1965 when I was working for the Sturbridge Evening News and was assigned to write a story about the lunar eclipse. I found two boys who were watching it in their rural backyard. I remember nothing about this, except huddling in some corner of that backyard, crammed between a shed and stone wall with a very small telescope and very cold hands. I think I took their picture and got out of their as soon as possible to some place warmer ;-) Stage 2 – Delight in explaining to others what a lunar eclipse was about – playing the teacher. And in this respect somewhere around 1973ish we threw an “eclipse party.” Had all sorts of people out to the house – I remember Cathy and Peter Sullivan in particular because they brought some “seaweed crackers” with them. (Mercifully, I don’t think these are made anymore. If they are, don’t bother sharing them with me –my taste for seafood begins and ends with fried clam strips.) Anyway, the eclipse was getting clouded out, so I announced we were leaving – abandoning the party and heading north, racing to get ahead of the incoming clouds. (Nice hosts, huh?) If anyone wanted to follow, that was fine. And we drove north. And I believe the Metheney’s followed, or came with us. And the kids were packed in the car, half-asleep. It was getting near midnight when we approached the vicinity of Thoreau's rural retreat at Walden Pond. There were a few breaks in the clouds. We did get a glimpse of the eclipse, but I can’t say we really saw it. As an educational evening it was – well, an education in how fanatically stupid I can be - or maybe how stupidly fanatic. Stage 3 – ho hum – been there, done that, a solar eclipse is the only one worth watching. Lunar eclipses are really boring. And now – now I understand something new. Now I can see and feel and I don’t need words for the experience, except to try to convey a little of it here. Mentally I always understood what was going on and with ignorant glibness could describe it. The moon was moving into the shadow of the earth. But experientially I didn’t understand that at all. Last night Bren and I drove out to Gooseberry Point, parked, and watched the eclipse move from about one-fourth partial to total and then some. We listened to “Prairie Home Companion” and “Sez You” on the radio, twisted and turned so we could peer through the windshield, and occasionally stepped out into the freezing night to get a better view. The moon was turning red – or a Halloween orange, anyways - and the leading edge of the grey shadow was cloud-like. Each time we stepped out we could see more stars in the vicinity of the moon. Ok, that’s all normal. But what was happening here? The moon was appearing to get higher in the sky. That is, it was appearing to move roughly from left (the eastern horizon) to right (a point over head.) But, of course, it wasn’t moving that way at all. We were moving on our twisting ball called Earth. OK, I’ve felt that many times lately watching a sun “rise” or sun “set” or moon “rise.” It’s not easy. It takes some meditation to shake the notion forced on us by conventional language – words like sunrise. But there are times when I can feel us turning and the whole tableau – at least of the local environment, our solar system – seems to fall into place. But it was the moon's left side – it’s downward side – that was getting darker. While it appeared to be moving one direction, the shadow of the earth seemed to be creeping up on it form the other. Not the case, at least as I understand it. I don’t think the shadow is moving – at least not significantly. What is moving, is the moon. It is moving in the opposite direction than our intuition tells us. And, of course, it is always doing this. This is why it rises roughly an hour earlier each night. But watch the moon on any given night and this effect – this motion to the east – is difficult to detect. It can be seen when the moon approaches some bright star, but that doesn’t happen very often. After all, big as it may look it only covers half a degree of sky. Not much at all. Sooooo…that was the beauty of the eclipse for me last night. As I stood there on Gooseberry Point looking out over Buzzard’s Bay I could feel the moon moving – I could experience the moon moving – not rising. We were turning making it appear to rise. But the moon was falling – falling right into the shadow of the earth – and a little later, out again. And so my sense of awe and wonder return. Wonder what stage five will be? Post Script - At the breakfast table I was discussing this with Bren who asked: "Does the moon move into the shadow of the earth, or does the earth move between the sun and the moon. " Hmmmm. . . I guess it depends on where you are standing. But, I would say it is more the motion of the moon that counts here. However, this brings up a very interesting perspective. Generally, our science books teach us that the moon orbits the earth and so we have this picture of us standing still and the moon running around us. It doesn't really look like that from the perspective of an independent observer sitting somewhere above our solar system and looking down. (Assuming there is a "down" for that observer. ) What that person sees is an intricate dance. The earth is revolving around the sun and as the earth does so, the moon is weaving in an out - sometimes on the side of the earth that is closer to the sun, sometimes on the outer side. Which is one more reminder of how it is all an intricate dance - that the one constant of the universe we observe is motion - change. It's also why I love Sydney Carter's song, "Lord of the Dance." I danced in the morning Dance, then, wherever you may be, (and many more verses) BTW - for a wonderful discussion of the science of lunar eclipses on a level anyone can understand, go here. For a wonderful picture sequence of a lunar eclipse that looks almost idenitical to what we saw last night, go here. |
