We've had beautiful weather all week, but naturally on the day we're supposed to have the lunar eclipse it gets cloudy. (Or at least I think we're supposed to have a lunar eclipse. The last eclipse (partial solar) I went out to see, I found later I'd missed it by a year.)

We had a total lunar eclipse back in 2000, I think. That was back when I worked second shift on a fairly crappy job. I remember taking a break toward the end of the shift and going outside with no coat on and my sleeves rolled up (it was well below freezing) and looking up at this weird orange moon. That was the first time I'd ever seen a lunar eclipse. About twenty minutes later I was at home in my driveway with my early 70's Yashica SLR on a tripod taking a few exposures and half freezing myself to death. (I had a coat on this time.) It ended badly though, the pictures were overexposed and a few days later I effectively transformed the camera into a paperweight after I jammed it trying to do a double exposure.

A lunar eclipse is definitely worth looking at if you can see one. Typically a full moon at night looks like a bright, flat disk, but during a lunar eclipse the moon is suddenly transformed into a three-dimensional object. It looks like a reddish-orange ball hanging in the sky surrounded by stars. Vaguely unsettling, but beautiful.