Lunar Rosa

We've been in the dark in southern New Zealand for the majority of the 24 hour day these past few months. This has led to a hive of inactivity most of the time, driving to work in the dark, driving home in the dark. But one thing that does stand out brilliantly in the winter months is the night sky, mainly because you don't have to make a concerted effort to see it as its just there, but given my geographical location this particular point in the globe is rather, well...flat. It means the horizons are quite expansive and unobstructed.

Dad being a keen astronomer has gotten back into his star gazing hobby this winter and has been taking many a picture of the moon and jupiter mainly on a calm clear night.

While I'm not the most avid of stargazers we've had acouple of treats this year thus far in McNaughts Comet which comes once every thousand years or so and the much more frequent "Lunar Rosa" eclipse which appears around about every seven years. We had a good enough night on Tuesday to get a good view of the lunar rosa as the moon disappeared and then reappeared in a reddish hue. It was quite a sight to behold!!

I always enjoy taking myself back half a millenia or more and imagine what it must having been like for people in those times watching these events without the knowledge we have now. Such events were linked with Black death and terrible wars such as Napoleons Russian conquest (to name one). I think the one that would have unsettled me the most however would have been watching a solar eclipse, the earths life source disappearing before your eyes. ahhh