Total Eclipse of the Heart…and Moon

Total Eclipse of the Heart…and Moon.   I always remain the romantic when it comes to the Moon, Sunrises and Sunsets!

The Captain set the alarm clock for 3:30 a.m.   We jumped out of bed!

Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say we s-l-o-w-l-y got out of bed …okay, the Captain jumped out of bed and for me it was more of a slower pace, but I was not far behind him. 😉

We wanted to see the Moon, which has always been a “sign” for us….it has played a large part in our early romance and we still love sunrises and sunsets, so I guess it would be accurate to say we like pretty much anything solar.

Remember in another post I told you we “name” things?

The name of our home here in Florida is “Villa de la Luna” which in Spanish means home of the moon!

How do I know this?  Because when we bought this home we christened it right away with a name…and we bought the plaque that resides just outside our courtyard doors. 😉

I told you I am weird like that.  Naming inanimate objects….

I am sure you have heard of the Blood Moon, which really isn’t a very accurate description of the total lunar eclipse! 

In fact, I don’t like that name…not sure why!

Just doesn’t seem romantic to me!

For you curious or not so curious and have asked the question why and how does the moon turn reddish, the Captain explained it to me.

Not that I didn’t know….I just wanted to see if he knew about it.  🙂

As I am sure you are aware, a total lunar eclipse happens when the earth passes between the sun and the moon, so the moon is in the earth’s shadow.

Everybody knows that, right? 😉 

And since the moon doesn’t emit light; we only see it because the sun’s light shines on it.

So, why can we see the moon at all during a total eclipse? (That was my question to the Captain…again just checking to see if he knew what I knew!) 

Yeah right! 🙂

The Captain responded: “Because the earth’s atmosphere bends some of the sun’s light around the edge of the earth, and that light falls on the moon.”

So, why is the eclipsed moon red instead of white?

Two reasons:

First, the sun’s light is made up of the colors of the spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; each color has a different wave length, with red having the longest and violet the shortest).

The Captain used this illustration: Think of a kaleidoscope and when you look through the prisms…the predominant color is red.

Second, the earth’s atmosphere is full of all kinds of particles that block the colors with short wave lengths (the blue end of the spectrum) and let the long-wave-length colors (the red end of the spectrum) pass through.

Hence, the red end of the spectrum falls on the moon during an eclipse, and the moon turns a rusty or red color.

 

Last night …or early morning for some….the moon was more of a rusty color from our viewing on our Lanai.

The bottom part of the moon was a pretty pale yellow so the contrast was beautiful.

We lay on our loungers and watched for almost an hour as clouds passed over creating a spectacular view.

The Captain and I have the IPhone and IPad app…“SkyView” .  It is a free app and it is amazing.

We used it last night too.  The way the app works is like this.  

You hold your IPad or IPhone (I like using my IPad because the screen is bigger) up towards the sky and while soft music plays (you can turn it off if you don’t need the sound effects)… you are able to see the constellations and planets and just in case you are not learned in the stars….there is a title at the bottom left corner to tell you what you are looking at.

I love this app! We are able to see the relative position of all sorts of man made satellites including the International Space Station (ISS). We watched as it rotated just under the horizon.

By the way did you know that the ISS travels almost 5 miles a minute? 

We also saw Mars and Saturn and of course many constellations. 

And did you know that last night was the closest Mars has been to us in six years? It was very bright last night.

Well, I have to admit, I didn’t know that either.  

That was another of the Captain’s observations.

These IPhones are something else aren’t they? 

Did you perhaps take a look at the Moon last night?

The sight was breathtaking and It reminded me of two Bible verses.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Have a great Tuesday!  

I am going to go take a nap! 🙂

Me