Early last night, needing a break from working on the Lord of the Little Burro blog post, I wandered out onto the terrace to check out the full moon rising over the city. The night was clear, La Luna was brilliant, and she was going to be putting on quite a show in 6+ hours — a lunar eclipse.
There was no way I could stay up until then, though I did have fleeting thoughts of setting my alarm. When bedtime came, I decided to leave it up to the fates or Semana Santa cohetes and church bells, though I did leave the Canon on her tripod, just in case. The fates had it (probably because I didn’t eat dinner until 9:00 PM); I awoke around 2:00 AM, got up, took the camera out on the terrace, and looked up. There was La Luna dressed as the Blood Red Queen.
That little spec below and to the right of the moon is Spica, the brightest star in the Virgo constellation. It’s extra visible because of the eclipse. In addition, about 10 degrees west of the moon, an even tinier reddish spec could also be seen (though not in this photo) — Mars came to the party, too! And, if this weren’t enough lunacy for one night, I happened to remember, earlier in the day it looked like one of the blossoms on my Night Blooming Cereus might be ready to bloom. Sure enough…
What a spectacular night! Though, how I made it to my 9:00 AM breakfast appointment, I’ll never know. Definitely, early to bed tonight.