Lunar Eclipse Observation 101 - Oct. 8, 2014
Kids awake by 4:15am... (No, I am not a morning person...and, yes, I got called "grumpy" by my 11 yr old. She was right, and I am not proud of this...but I did straighten out my act after being called on it. Go, Mom!)
Much excitement...(just picture a 3 yr old little girl running through the house in pink fleece footie pj's at 4am)
At one point, the "moon gazing" evolved into "star gazing", b/c the clouds kept covering the eclipse...
 |
| Part of my moon-gazing, star-gazing crew... The outside light was on only briefly, b/c I couldn't get my camera to take a pic in the darkness. And, the Ritz cracker box - this was a homemade pinhole box we made several weeks ago to view a SOLAR eclipse. Samuel grabbed it with excitement and thought we could view the moon with it. Nope, little man, sorry. You can see the moon much better with your own eyes. |
So Gregg showed them Jupiter (and 1 of its moons) through the telescope.
At the time of total eclipse there was complete cloud cover, and we were very disappointed.
"We waited 2 hours for THIS?"
"Ummm...this is interesting...but highly overrated."
"Well, at least I TRIED to make school fun. Do you understand what a big deal this is? Even when an eclipse occurs, it's rare to be able to see it in YOUR town. And, even then, the weather conditions have to be just right. At least we were able to see part of it, right?" (I did well keeping my grumpiness at bay...Go, Mom! I'm not sure they were convinced it was worth it, though.)
But...then the clouds parted for about 30 seconds! (Thank you, Lord, for answering my spoken prayer from just minutes before!)
We were able to behold the "blood moon" just after 6:30am.
Honestly, I think the kids were tired by then and less enthusiastic than I had hoped. (and naptime will not come soon enough!)
But, we managed to grab a few photos, and we discussed the physical logistics of how an eclipse occurs.
We talked about how God does, indeed, have an order to our universe, and He gives us glimpses of this every day in "ordinary ways" and sometimes in some "not so ordinary ways."
The heavens truly behold His glory...it's no accident.
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
Genesis 1:1
