Total Moonal Eclipse!

I was informed of last night's lunar eclipse in a timely manner by the trusty Internet, so Kyle and I headed out into the country to get a decent look at it. McMinnville is, in many estimations, in the middle of nowhere, but one of its big advantages is that you can drive north to the next town and then west and in five or ten minutes be in a place where you can actually see the night sky. As it happened the evening was pretty clear so we headed out, looking for some grassy field or another; ultimately we settled for a patch of grassy turf beneath some power lines next to a small creek, as well as what turned out to be the future site of a Carlton Fire Department substation. So we put down our blankets and regarded the moon in shadow, drinking chardonnay from tumblers and listening to the chirping frogs/ running water/ buzzing power lines around us, until the clouds caught up to the moon and I started to get cold because my seasonally appropriate coat is still lodged firmly within the center of my mostly un-unpacked car.

On the way back to McMinnville the clouds started to clear up again, so we stopped at the side of the road and looked at the sliver of un-eclipsed moon that was emerging along the bottom of the lunar disk. This emergence seemed to be proceeding slowly -- slower than, say, the sun rising -- for reasons we couldn't work out. Fun to observe though.