i am an unrequited astronomer, pretend patient, gentle adventurer, pedal enthusiast, recovering calligrapher, occasional thespian and unfinished poet living in portland, oregon. contacting me via email is usually a good idea.
6:14 PM: weather underground
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well, that just goes to show you the weather people don't know anything! despite numerous rain forecasts for wednesday, last night was a perfect night to watch an eclipse. that actually caught me off guard a little, so i was late getting us started up the hill to powell butte. because the moon was rising at the time of the eclipse, we couldn't see it on this side of the hill, but by the time we got up there it was already in totality.
still, we got to see saturn & regulus patiently flank the eclipsed moon in leo, and we got to see the moon slip away from its veil and shine fully again. i love that moment when the curved edge of the moon begins to gleam after an hour in the darkness. as it grew brighter, it was neat to see the sky change as stars that had been visible during the eclipse disappeared, and others grew smaller or dimmer.
it seemed like a beautiful summer night: the frogs & crickets were in chorus, and we heard owls call to each other from the trees. it was really cold, though, and i was grateful sven brought a thermos of french onion soup with him (whereas i brought a chocolate bar embedded with pop rocks).
the next full eclipse visible to us won't be until december 20, 2010! i'm so very glad the weather decided to cooperate; an amazing event for a normally unrequited astronomer. thank you portland!