We have been roasting here in the daytime for nearly two months. No rain. Hard blue skies with virtually no clouds. At night we have sat out under clear skies and watched the moon rise and move sedately across the heavens. Until the NIGHT OF THE RED MOON, the
longest total eclipse of the 21st century!
Naturally the media hyped it all up. What we would see would be a full eclipse of the moon by the shadow of the earth cast by the sun which would be red. Not only that, for the first time in countless years, the red planet Mars would also be visible. Such a phenomenon will not be seen again until 2080. Yeah!
We planned our evening carefully. Cushions for chairs. Blankets to ward off cold and midges. Cups of tea for comfort. What did we see? B..... all!
Down came the cloud as if in a sarcastic smothering response to all the hype we had suffered for weeks. Ah well, I definitely won't be around for the next Red Moon event so can't worry about it. I'll just have content myself with bats and barn owls. Hey ho.....
P.S. Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will") was born at Edwards Air Force Base, U.S.A. in 1949. It was named after Capt. Edward A. Murphy, an engineer working on Air Force Project MX981 which was designed to see how much sudden deceleration a person can withstand in a crash, so Granny dreads to think of some of Mr. Murphy's more serious consequences!