Winter Solstice Full Moon Eclipse, 21 December 2010

Winter solstice … the shortest day of the year .. and the longest night .. began with a total eclipse of the moon. The simultaneity of events has happened on only one winter solstice since the year 1 (that’s a very long long time ago) in 1638. The next occurrence is more than 200 years in the future. I’ll leave notes for my great-great-great-great grandchildren 🙂

I was lucky enough to be in clear sky perfect location for the event. The evening was cool, a Baja winter setting in for late December. I laid on the beach and watched the moon shift form brilliant white in a black sky to a rusty red color, all the craters and meteor impacts revealed in a softer palette. The black sky opened to star fields that surrounded the red orb, and shooting stars carried trails of shimmering crimson and gold that seemed to linger like spent fireworks.

I could say .. ahhhhhhh .. a few hundred times, and not nearly express the full impact of the evening.