As I sit at the computer typing these words, the shadow of the Earth is slipping past the full moon. Only a small sliver of shadow remains. It was too cold here in the wilds of Alabama to stay outside for too long, but I did make sure to go out and see the eclipse. Did you see it? I hope so, as it was pretty spectacular.
Yesterday the weather was lousy with a capital L. Rain and gloom most of the day. Since the clouds never clear as rapidly as the weathermen on TV say that it will, I’ve learned that “slow clearing” actually means really, really slow clearing. With clouds last night and clouds this morning, I doubted the skies would clear in time for the celestial show tonight. Yet late in the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds, and by a quarter after eleven local time, when the eclipse was at its height, the skies were almost completely clear. (I don’t mean to rub it in if there were clouds where you were. Doubtless there had to be clouds somewhere in the world. I’m just glad that it wasn’t cloudy here.) If you didn’t get to see the eclipse, there are plenty of pictures online. In fact, check out this spiffy montage I put together of how it all looked from my neck of the woods.