Elipse

Last Tuesday night (28 August) we were entertained by one of the world's great experiences. It was a full eclipse of the moon by the earth and a beautiful cloudless night and the whole display lasted getting on for two hours. I was playing bridge at the time, but our venue had a wonderful viewing area just outside the emergency exit. Needless to say, the entire 12 playing tables decamped to the viewing platform at the end of each deal and the game was on the slow side.



At the peak of the eclipse, the moon turned a brown-red colour with a thin lighter halo around the edge. It was easy to make out the earth's shadow lying across the moon and the disappearance of its surface crater. In a way, it beat the total eclipse of the sun viewed from Dartmoor a few years ago. That event was spoiled by heavy cloud.

AS

Celestial Display

Last Tuesday (28 August) we were treated to a brilliant celestial display: a full eclipse of the moon by the earth. It last almost 2 hours and, at the apogee at 8.30 pm, the full moon (in a cloudless sky) turned red-brown surrounded by a feint lighter circumference where the earth's shadow was incomplete. Surface features, such as craters, disappeared and it was almost creepy to see the earth's shadow edging across the moonscape.

It sure beat the last full eclipse of the earth by the moon I saw from the top of Dartmoor. That event was spoiled by heavy cloud.