Tag: Eclipse

Moonlight

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A short story.

I joined a writing group recently and this is one of my first stories.

Moonlight 

In the past the shadow of Earth would gradually spread across the Moon. Time for mayhem, time for fear. 

But these days people don’t consider the changes that could happen during full moons, or even more so – a lunar eclipse. 

Blood red Moon due. The TV news channels were full of it. The weather man explained when you could see it. Start at 2.32am, mid eclipse 4.17am, and the end at 6.23am. If there was a clear sky people would go out and look. In the dark of the night they would dress up warmly ad try and watch the marvellous sky borne event. 

But in the dark things were scampering, hiding close by, hidden in trees and bushes and tall grassland. Things that changed at the full moon, ready to capture and ensnare. The blackness of night was increased during the full eclipse, when the brilliant moon was dimmed. 

It was 3am and she decided to view this lunar delight. A flask of tea, a warm coat and scarf. Strong shoes to stop her turning an ankle in the tussocky grass….. A good torch with new batteries. Out of the back door-

Out the gate and into the alleyway…. She moved through the misty air. Feet slipping on the frosty ground. 

Down the path into the feild edges. She was watching where her feet fell but chanced a quick glance up. The moon was pinkish, a darker shadow on one side.

As she walked she heard shuffling sounds in the grass. But she took no notice, probably a cat? Out into the main feild. 

Quietness. The eclipse was doing it’s thing, gradually reddening. A blush on the lunar surface. Moonlight but crimson. Like blood.

She sat on a wooden bench and poured herself a cup of tea, strong no sugar. Sipping it she tried to sit comfortably, head up, neck cranking to get a good view through the entangled tree branches. SNAP! atwig crunched. Turning her she saw a glimpse. A Werewolfs smile….. 

(I’m going to read this out at a local event. Wish me luck!)

Red Moonlight

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A story written for a prompt “moonlight” for a writing group I’ve joined.

In the past the shadow of Earth would gradually spread across the face of the Moon, it was time for mayhem, time for fear.

But these days people don’t consider the changes that could happen during full moon, or even more so – a lunar eclipse.

Blood red moon due. The TV news channels were full of it. The weather man explained when you could see it. Start at 2.32am, mid eclipse 4.17am, and the end at 6.23 am.

If there was a clear sky people would go out and look. In the dark of the night they would dress up warmly and try and the marvellous sky bourne event.

But in the dark things were scampering, hiding close by, hidden in trees and bushes and tall grassland. Things that changed at the full moon, ready to capture and ensnare. The blackness of night was increased during the full eclipse, when the brilliant moon was dimmed.

It was 3am when she decided to view this lunar delight. A flask of tea, a warm coat and scarf, strong shoes to stop her turning her ankle in the tussocky grass…… A good torch with new batteries. Out the back door- out the gate and into the alleyway… She moved through the misery air. Feet slipping on the frosty ground. Down the path into the feild edges. She was watching where her feet fell but chanced a quick glance upwards. The moon was pinkish, a darker shadow to one side.

As she walked she heard shuffling sounds in the grass. But she took no notice. Out into the main feild. Quietness. The eclipse was doing it’s thing gradually reddening. A blush on the lunar surface. Moonlight but crimson, like blood.

She sat on a wooden bench and poured herself a cup of tea. Strong, no sugar. Sipping it she tried to sit comfortably, head up, neck craning to get a good view through entangled tree branches. ‘Snap’ a twig crunched. Turning her head she saw a glimpse. A WEREWOLF’s Smile…..

Moonlight memories

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The Moon will be eclipsed by the Earth tomorrow morning and there will be a blood (red) moon due. That means that as the Earth moves between the Sun and the Moon the light rays from the Sun are refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. Blue light is scattered more but red light continues towards the Moon and illuminates it. (in a similar way that at sunset the sky can turn red).

Moonlight has been important in my life, from the Moon landings from 1969 and seeing it in its various phases. I remember being in my bedroom sitting on my bedroom window ledge as a child and reading books by moonlight. I loved being able to read even though we had to turn the lights out. I used to enjoy it.

Eclipse painting sketch

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Sketch of an eclipse on canvas in acrylic paint. I challenged myself to just paint with red, yellow, blue, white and black so I had to mix new colours using the primary colours on the pallette. I added a tiny moon surrounded by the corona of the sun visible against the darkened sky. It might be something I paint properly in future.

Eclipse

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There is due to be an eclipse in North America tomorrow and some strange things are being written by people about it.  Anyone would think it had never happened before, when it’s a regular astronomical phenomenon.

We’ve had a couple in the UK over the last few decades and nothing bad happened, no ending of the world, no real catastrophes (except maybe Brexit!).

But humans are good at seeing portents. They tie religion to events and make up stories to fit the events. Centuries ago we could not predict the occurrence of eclipses and thought that things like dragons were swallowing the sun.

Some tips for viewing eclipses:

I viewed an eclipse in the UK in the 1990s by looking at its reflection in my car window as I had no viewing goggles. You can also see its reflection in water. And if you make a small hole in card or paper you can see multiple crescent moon shaped patterns on the surface it’s projected onto. (explanations of how to do this can be found on the net,) Remember DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN! Even approaching totality when the moon is covering the majority of the sun you can damage your sight. You can be blinded by the light from the sun including ultraviolet light that can burn your retina without you feeling it.

Eclipse

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Drawing I did of the Mandelbrot set

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

The word I thought of was Eclipse. I imagine if a shape like this, instead of the moon, could blot out the sun? Could it be an alien ship (I wonder why I’ve imagined that again). It could be a dream I might have tonight, I’d love to be able to direct my dreams…

There was an eclipse over in western Australia a couple of days ago, it tracked across the ocean and totality (the moon blotting out the sun) only happened for a minute or so. I’ve seen partial eclipses but never a total one.

To find out if a star has planets you can look out for dips in the starlight. Kepler, a space telescope has done this. By watching millions of stars, thousands of planets have been found eclipsing their stars. What a wonderful universe we live in…

Partial Eclipse

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There is a partial eclipse across Europe tomorrow. 25.10.2022. Don’t look up at the sun unless you have proper eclipse glasses. It can burn your retinas and blind you because of ultra violet radiation. But one thing you can do is look at the ground, either in a puddle and yo may see a reflection, or if you stand under a tree that’s in leaf you may see images projected on the ground that look like crescent moons. These are images of the sun as the moon partly glides across it. The reason for the images? The leave are acting like a pinhole camera.

Setting Moon

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Seen a couple of nights ago, a blurry setting Moon, chasing the Sun round the sky.

You can tell what angle the Moon is to the Sun because of the angle of the curve on the sunlit side. As the Moon waxes and wanes the position of the Sun can be worked out, full Moon=the Sun is on the other side of the Earth, a sliver of Moon, the Moon is in between the Earth and the Sun. Eclipse? If the Moon Eclipses the Sun it is directly between the other two bodies. If the Moon turns bright red its the Earth getting between the Moon and Sun, its only really then that you can see the curvature of the Moons surface, whichis usually so reflective that it looks bright and flat.

I guess this is the most number of times I’ve written ‘”Moon” in a blog!

Sun and Moon

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#30daysketchbookchallenge, Day 23 drawing. Sun and Moon in an eclipse. I couldn’t get the black dark enough and the colours bright enough so I used Instagram filters on it….

I’ve seen a couple of eclipses in the UK. They were only partial eclipses but by looking in a bowl of water, and also the dark reflective paint on my car I managed to see something. Also the phenomenon of curved moon shapes of light caused by light from the partially eclipsed sun shining through vegitation.

NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY EVEN IN AN ECLIPSE. IF YOU ARE USING FILTER GLASSES MAKE SURE THEY ARE NOT FAKE. IF YOU LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN YOU CAN BE BLINDED!

Partial eclipse

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I Bodged a hole in a peice of card

Two years ago we had a partial eclipse (about 85% to 90%) of the sun. This meant that the moons shadow cut into the Sun’s disc but didn’t completely cover it.

I knew that if you make a hole in a peice of card and then hold the card infront if a plain white or pale surface you can project the image of the sun onto the wall. This is better than trying to use solar goggles which are not always safe to use. YOU MUST NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. You could be Blinded. Even if you use sun glasses you are in danger, sun glasses do not cut out the full spectra of the sun and your eyes can be burned. You must not look at the sun! The second two photos were to show the suns image  cast on the wall.

Anyway after that strong warning I will continue… .

When the sun shone onto the card a small image of it was  projected behind the card. This is called a pinhole projection. Then as the moon glided across the sun a little bite appeared to cut into the sun. Gradually it increased. In this case the sun was passing across the face of the sun in one direction but because the projection was upside down the moon appeared to bite in to the right hand lower side but it was actually passing left to upper left.

As the moon crept across the face of the sun I noticed the shadows got less strong. Then I saw the shadow of my weeping fig on the wall. Amazingly all the leaves combined to cast lots of curved moon shadows onto the wall. I went outside and noticed the same thing was happening where the light was coming through the tree leaves. I’ve seen this phenomenon photographed and described on astronomy programmes.

Finally I took a shot of the light vshining through the trees. Carefully not looking at the sun and ensuring the camera lens was not pointed directly at the sun.

Life is interesting  I hope you get the chance to see an eclipse.

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