21 February 2008

Is this the dark side of the moon?

So I'm sitting here in Iraq, shaking off the chill of the morning, watching a lunar eclipse, when I say to myself, "Self, you're pretty fortunate to be in the middle of a warzone watching this natural phenomenon.” That’s when I realize that I’m talking to myself and stop to make sure no one is looking at me acting crazy.

A lunar eclipse is when the earth casts a shadow on the moon from the sun (there's your useless fact for the day). It doesn't completely block out the moon like a solar eclipse does, but it does turn it a crazy hue of orange. This event won’t happen again until 2010, and I got to watch this less than frequent event on the other side of the world. It feels good to have something positive to see when things aren't so positive lately. Yes, things suck, but at least I didn't have to pull parking attendant duty for a bunch of generals like some other captains did.

I feel like I've let my heritage down since I didn't have a better camera handy to capture this event, but you can just make out the moon's light being swallowed up on the horizon with the palm trees and T-walls of the FOB in the foreground.


Lunar eclipse over Baghdad

2 comments:

Mom of three in Michigan said...

Thanks for the picture! It sounds like you could compare the sand with the snow, although I am lucky enough that it isn't coming into the house. We got another foot of snow on Sunday. It is on top of the already foot on the ground. I send you some pictures of the snow piles around the driveway. Take it easy!

BlondHairJew said...

Great pic of the eclipse! I showed my Comp. professor last night the pic 'cause she was talking about the eclipse and I told her that you had a great picture of it from Baghdad. Looking at your pic it looks like the moon is more visible from the bottom. Here, the eclipse went from side to side, and I asssume it would be the same way there, but the pic makes it look like it went from top down.
You're Asian brethren would be proud of your photograhy skills.