Blood Moon Fever!

If you have a constitutional preference for permanent things over transient things — which is to say, if you have a soul that tilts toward the ancient rather than the modern sensibility — then you may already know that the night of Friday, July 27th, 2018 is a special one for sky-watchers. For this is the night of a lunar eclipse, and even better, the longest total eclipse or so-called “blood moon” of this century, during which the refraction of the sun’s light causes only red and orange rays to reach the moon. 

If you are in North America, however, I’m sorry to have to say you’re out of luck, as far as seeing this delightful sight with the naked eye goes. Here in Korea, we are supposed to get the full event, beginning at about 2:30am Korean Time. Yes, yours truly will be staying up in the hopes of seeing it live, and, if the Fates smile on me, taking a few photos to share with you.

Unfortunately, I have to say “if the Fates smile on me,” since the sky is quite overcast as I write this, after midnight, so there is a chance the only red circles I’ll have seen tomorrow morning will be my eyeballs in the mirror. But we only live once, as they say (or rather claim, without evidence), so on that (plausible but unproven) assumption, I decided to call Mother Nature’s bluff and try to wait her out. We’ll see how it goes….

In the meantime, feel free to wander around here in Limbo for a while, while your sleepy host runs out to fetch some infernal coffee while contemplating the meaning of staying up all night to see what will only remind him of how small he is, and will likely even mock him in that reminder by not appearing at all. This is something only humans would do, I imagine.