Staring at the Moon and Impending Spring

Like some many others across the Western Hemisphere early this morning, I was able to witness the Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse.  I always get excited about any impending celestial events like this, but then have a tendency to either forget about it before it happens or just fall asleep.  As totality was going to happen between 1:26AM and 2:31AM my time, I was a little worried about repeating this pattern.

But this week I tried to prepare by practicing photographing the almost full moon each night this week and that helped to get me excited and in no danger of forgetting about the eclipse. 

My camera is a now “vintage” Nikon CoolPix L120.  I’ve always liked it, but it’s obviously not the standard kind of camera used by the pros to capture all the cool shots of the Blood Moon we’re seeing this morning. 

But my little humble “point and shoot” camera did help me to stop and take a little time this week to really see the moon.  All my practicing zooming in on it and trying to get a good shot up close and get all the craters to appear a little bit sharper made me stop in the midst of another busy week to really appreciate this celestial body that I can see any night that I chose to look up in the sky, but so often just don’t stop to give it much notice.

This week I’ve also been watching Bob Ross The Joy of Painting episodes and something Bob said a couple of days ago caught my attention.  He was talking about painting trees and he said, “Devote some time to studying what a tree looks like.  Go out and talk to a tree.  Make friends with it.  Spend some time looking at trees.  See what makes them work.  Why do they look the way they look?  Bet you have a tree in your front yard probably that you’ve looked at for a hundred years and never paid any attention to.  Get you a big glass of iced tea and go out one day and sit in the yard and just look at how beautiful it is.  Nature’s so fantastic if you just devote a little time to studying it, looking at it.  Make friends with it.”

I know Bob was talking about trees here as he so often did, but it made me think of my endeavors trying to photograph the moon.  I’ve spent more time than usual this week just looking at and studying the moon.  And as Bob said, “Nature’s so fantastic if you just devote a little time to studying it and looking at it.”

I was so excited last night that I had no problem staying up.  It was cool to watch as the shadow of the earth began to eclipse the moon.  I was in and out of the house during this time because it was pretty chilly, but as totality neared, I got myself not a glass of iced tea as Bob suggested, but a mug of hot tea and just sat out on my deck and watched as the moon slowly turned red.  I stayed outside for over an hour just watching the moon through the haze of scattered clouds that passed through our area. 

This full moon is the last full moon of winter and is known as the Worm Moon because the earth worms will be emerging as the weather warms up.  More and more signs of spring are popping up around here.  Two days ago, I stepped out the front door and realized the Bradford Pear tree in the front yard was starting to bloom.

It’s Tennessee so I expect there to be a few “false starts” on spring, but even so it’s impossible to not feel that usual excitement of renewal that comes each spring and to look forward to all the new life that will soon be blooming all around us.  A Blood Moon seems to be a pretty neat way to close out winter and get ready to greet a new spring.  I’m glad I was able to stay awake to experience it.