March 03, 2007
Moonshadow
Fan-fucking-tastic viewing conditions for tonight's lunar eclipse -- and it's a beauty. The sight of the occult moon up there is like an object lesson in humility, a grab-and-shake moment of putting-in-perspective. The Earth casts a long shadow -- which is not to pretend it's of any importance -- and once in awhile we get to see it. It's all laid bare. We come to this kind of thing with an incredible head start, you and I. Can you imagine trying to understand it from the raw data? Eek! The Moon's occluded! It must be moving through the shadow of the Earth! If you didn't know how the solar system fitted together, if you only had the evidence of your eyes and ears, would you ever leap to that conclusion? Or would you make up crazy stories to explain it to yourself in the dark?Posted by matt at March 3, 2007 11:20 PM
Comments
Missed it. Was in a hotel room knocking back Patrón. Maybe I should've peeked out the window at some point?
Posted by: Robin at March 4, 2007 08:54 AM
Maybe you should. The US didn't get the best views, anyway, more of a twilight sort of thing. That's what you get for living in the future.
Posted by: matt at March 4, 2007 10:31 PM
Living in the future: you don't know the half of it, pal.
At twilight I was working on a somewhat more standard-issue tequila, and nowhere near a window, luckily for the people queued up to see Disney's 'Tarzan' 16 stories below.
Posted by: Robin at March 4, 2007 10:50 PM
It was totally obscured by clouds here.
I agree that wild stories would have been called for, but your analysis ultimately misses the point: it was a good reason to get drunk then, and it's a good reason to get drunk now. Plus ca change, and all that.
Of course, nowadays you can plan ahead and lay in liquor. Back then, you wouldn't have had time to send out invitations. Thank God for science.
Posted by: Teddy at March 5, 2007 02:40 PM
I always wondered what the current world would have been like if the moon rotated on its axis ever so slightly faster, thereby making the "dark side" of the moon visible. Would this have helped people to understand our orbiting solar system? Could it have established the heliocentric model in the 13th or 14th century instead of the 16th century? Kind of makes you wonder...
Posted by: ryan at March 7, 2007 01:07 AM
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