Blood Moon

There is a full lunar eclipse tonight. I was able to see it walking home from class. Turns out there’s also a view from my apartment’s balcony.

What a treat.

I’m a bit of an cosmology geek, something I picked up from my father over the years. One thing I noticed is that the eclipse really makes apparent the Earth’s larger diameter. As the Earth’s shadow was covering the moon, it didn’t look like the usual crescent moon; the demarcation between light and shadow had a much larger curve, almost to the point of being vertical.

Right now the eclipse is in totality, giving that famous “blood moon” red. It makes the moon look much more 3-D than usual. I don’t know the reason, but I suspect it has to do with interplay of light and shade. Instead of being totally illuminated or totally dark, the whole moon is faintly glowing. It makes the surface features easier to see, and also makes it look more like a sphere than a disc. Almost looks like it’s popping right out of the sky. Shame there won’t be another one until 2010.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to step outside and take another look.