In our shadow

Last night's lunar eclipse was truly stunning! Before the eclipse, moonlight shone so brightly that it seemed like daylight. The albedo from snowclad fields made it bright enough to still see colors. Then the drama began... looking out my windows, the bright snowfields faded and an eerie darkness grew. It wasn't like the dimmed light of clouds passing over the moon. No white glow from clouded skies. Just darker and darker ground, with stars popping out overhead. Viewed from the dark skies of rural Maine, the moon turned dark orange as it entered earth's umbral shadow.

I went outside and stood on my backporch, clad in pajamas, coat and scarf. Wind whisked through pine branches and dried beech leaves rattled, still attached to saplings. The moon glowed deep umber and bright stars glittered. I hooted for Great Horned Owls, who I hope will nest in last year's crow nest in my yard, but the only answers were from my cats meowing inside. Standing there in my flip-flops, watching the remaining bright white arc of moon slowly melt away, I was reminded of roasting marshmallows 'round a campfire. White, ever so slowly turns mellow brown and then when it gets hot enough, ignites into glowing orange. It looked just like what was happening in the sky. And just like roasting marshmallows, watching an eclipse takes patience, maybe even more so, with no warming fire nor sugary reward.

But reward there was at totality! Suddenly the moon took on a 3D appearance, looking like one of those artists' conceptions of the view from another planet. When the moon is full it's so bright that it looks more like a disk than the sphere it is. But in our shadow, smoldering auburn, the moon appeared round. The "man in the moon" seemed to purse his lips in an expression of amazement. It was a spectacular sight with brilliant white Saturn just to the left of our orange orb and Regulus of Leo shimmering overhead! The moon punctuated the backwards question mark sickle of Leo the Lion's head with a giant dot, overwhelming Regulus' starpoint.

I have been asked why, during a lunar eclipse, that only the brighest stars become visible, making constellations easier to see. Whereas during a new moon, dim stars and the Milky Way blanket the sky making finding constellations a bit of a consternation. I was curious myself to see if the Milky Way would come out during this eclipse, but it did not. The answer is simply that even an eclipsed moon puts out a lot of light, obliterating dimmer stars. Guess being in our shadow isn't as eclipsing as earthlings might think.