Once In A Long While Opportunity

Last night, those who did not have cloudy skies were treated to a rare sight. You've probably heard of a harvest or super moon. Those occur when the moon's orbit is closer to the Earth, making the moon appear slightly larger. And you've probably heard of or seen a lunar eclipse. On September 27th, about 21:00 (Eastern Time), we had a rare occurrence of a Harvest moon and a lunar eclipse. The last time these two events lined up was 1982. The next one will be in 2033. So it isn't exactly a once in a lifetime opportunity, but certainly a once in a long while event.

I was ready with my camera and tripod last night. I "glued" a series of the shots into a progression:

Progression from no eclipse to about 90% eclipse

 It was fun to sit in the dark and watch a rare celestial phenomenon. Heck, I would have been happy with just a lunar eclipse, but to get both at the same time was even better. And I think my cats were happy that I was pointing the camera at something else besides them.

In olden times, this sort of thing caused chaos and panic among people who were wary of deviation from normal moon phases. What does it mean? Will the harvest be poor? Will we be plagued with locusts? Will our wells dry up? These days we are less superstitious and more in awe of such an event. As a writer, this sort of event fuels my well of inspiration and gives me ideas for enriching my stories. 

The next time the news media makes a hype about something in the night sky that happens once in a great while, go take a peek if you can. You might discover the wonders of stargazing.