Lunar Eclipse 8/28/07 - My Experience

My alarm went off at 1:30am and I got out of bed, not feeling at all tired. I'd been sleeping since 10. After dressing quickly, I went outside to look at the moon. It looked like a normal full moon so I turned on the computer and sat for half an hour before looking at the moon again.

This time I saw a little dent in the moon, so I bravely walked over to Bob's van, in which he was sleeping, and tapped on the window. At that time it was still fairly bright out due to the light of the full moon. "It's starting," I told him. He mumbled something and got up. I say I did this "bravely" because normally walking around outside at night kind of scares me since we live in the Klamath National Forest. I've seen a bear outside my kitchen window and a mountain lion on my front porch. 

By the time Bob joined me, I realized it was cold and decided to change into winter clothing. As this was the first time this season I'd needed them, I had to pull warm clothes out of storage. I walked back outside armed with my camera and tripod. I figured I'd need that to keep the camera still enough to get a good shot.

Once outside I set up the tripod on the back of my car and then realized a part was missing. Bob took photos anyhow.

We sat in comfy camping chairs near the car, waiting for totality. This took about half an hour. It gradually got darker and darker. I heard my neighbors stir once in a while but thankfully they seemed to sleep through our entire lunar eclipse experience. Their dog woke up once, but didn't bark. Every now and then we had to move our chairs because the moon moved, and the tall pines obscured it.

Finally the eclipse was complete. The moon, in the shadow of the earth, glowed red. I thought the wind might rise up, but it didn't. Staring at the eclipse was eerie and peaceful. I felt it was a healing experience, relaxing and revitalizing. 

Bob told me that prayers said during eclipses are much more potent than at other times, and we spent about twenty minutes praying silently, doing positive thinking about the future. Then Bob said he was cold; after a few more freezing minutes, he went into his van to meditate further.

I was a die-hard, and tried to stay outside for the whole thing. As I said, there have been wild animals around our house, so I was pleased with my bravery in sitting out in the dark alone between 3 and 4 am. I'd seen a lunar eclipse before, but it wasn't anywhere as long as this one. During that time I meditated and thought about life and my reactions to it, the future we're planning, and many other issues that came up. Every now and then I heard a creature walking around, but each time, it was one of my cats. I saw about five shooting stars. Once I thought I saw a shadow pass quickly in front of me; that caused a moment of fear but I got it under control, and continued my moon-watching peacefully.

A thought came to me that this orb that circles the earth could be an ancient space ship. I write fiction so naturally I thought about how I could make a story from the idea. In my story an ancient civilization faced extinction, so they created the moon to circle the earth until it was safe to return. Their descendants, however, felt no need to return; they like living there. 

By 4 I was getting impatient, wondering when it would end, so I went inside and looked for more information on the internet. I finally found a site that said it would be over at 4:22; at that time it was 4:12. I discovered that I could see the eclipse from my bathroom window and be much warmer at the same time. 

After totality ended I crawled into bed but stayed awake another half-hour at least because my feet were chilled for the first time this season. Finally I forced myself out of bed to put on socks, and crawled back in. Soon I was sleeping; when I woke up the next morning to go to work, I felt completely refreshed. It was as if the four hours I stayed awake in the middle of the night didn't affect me negatively at all.