ianmcdonald (ianmcdonald) wrote,
ianmcdonald
ianmcdonald
  • Music: Enter Shikari: Juggernaut

When the Moon is eclipsed by the earth...

because I was up early to do a bit on da book, I stepped out to see the lunar eclipse, which, viewed from the deck at the back of the house, was more or less directly over Knockagh across Belfast Lough. Totality at about 07:45. It went blood red. I tried to get a photograph but the light was too low and my fingers too chilled and thick. It's good to be drawn out (especially at this very internal time of year) to contemplate things that are not a product of human culture. Damn cold --we must have had a total of thirty centimetres of snow since last Thursday: it's bedded in some, but shows no sign of leaving us. The Google weather alert says -13 C in Tinseltown in the Rain last night, which is pretty mind-buggering, even if I do take it with a pinch of (road) salt. I do remember seeing the sea freeze in Bangor marina waaay back, it's getting to that kind of temperature here. I wish I could find it again, but last year, in February, the last big freeze, someone on my flist posted a singularly alarming picture, from NOAA: a satellite thermal image of the North Atlantic conveyor. The Gulf Stream, thermal red, instead of curving easttowards Europe, was diverting west between Baffin Island and Greenland. meaning: the Gulf Stream is shutting down. I wonder if there are any NOAA shots from the present freeze?
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