Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Don't worry a lunar eclipse is pretty much just another regular night: there's no fumes, no heat, no winds, no rushes of emotion and crying, no special properties. Just a bit of moonless sky.

Pretty much just a perfect new moon.

Unless you're an enthusiast with a good telescope, you're not missing much by looking at a video of it.

Though then again, it probably looked just like any othe lunar eclipse too, so we could also wait for another one of those. Might be shorter but they look just as moonless.

@ThanosReXXX Oh well, fortunately they're pretty common. Maybe not as long as this one, but you're not going to spend 1.5 hours staring at the Moon anyway. Now I missed the transit of Venus, twice, that's something I regret!

@Yosheel Well, no offense, but agree to disagree. As I explained before, and maybe I should have stressed that this counts for ME, there is just no comparison between a compressed YouTube video and actually looking up into the sky and seeing it.

Even the normal moon attracts me, to a point that I can simply stand on my balcony and stare at it for longer periods of time, admiring it.

Another thing I would like to go and see in real life is the Northern Lights, and I'd like to go visit the parts of the world where the sun (almost) never sets (like the Midnight Sun in parts of Scandinavia).
Those are experiences I want to have, not simple clicks on a video playlist.

As the old saying goes: you haven't been to Rome, unless you've seen the Colosseum...

As for the Blood Moon: no need for a telescope over here, since it was relatively close, it was a full moon and a clear sky, so it was very easy to see.

@Octane I know, but as I explained before, I just have this more or less irrational annoyance about having missed it, due to the fact that they attached the " the next one of this magnitude will not occur for at least another 100 years" label to it, which makes it feel more important than it probably should be, to the casual onlooker, but still.

It's not rational, I know, but it's still a feeling I can't escape. In a larger perspective, it could also be about missed moments never returning, for me personally: I'm a highly empathic person, so stuff like that can have a certain effect on me, sometimes.

@ThanosReXXX I guess! But of course, the media was hyping it up a bit. Sure it was technically the longest at 104 minutes, but there are a few other eclipses set to happen that last almost as long, up to 102 minutes. Plus, I don't think the very beginning of it was even visible over here. Maybe somewhere on a field with no trees for a few kilometres. I couldn't see it though, it took a while before the Moon was high enough that I could see it over the trees and the houses. So in a sense we missed out on a few minutes anyway!

@Octane Clear sky and full moon over here, so it would have been quite clear to see. And the position of the moon is quite high, from my point of view, so that wouldn't have been the issue either. Could have just stood on my balcony and gazed at it...

But again: my feelings overrule any rationality, so no amount of logical explanation is going to take that little bit of sorrow/regret away from me...

@ThanosReXXX the telescope is not for looking at the not-there moon.

It's for looking at everything else not being drowned by a bright moon.

Anyway don't worry about missing stuff. During your life time you've already missed thousands of moments that will never happen again. And you'll miss many more. Amazing animals go extinct, beautiful places will disappear, unusual things happen that won't happen again any time soon...

You're just one person. Don't think too much about it.

@Yosheel Sorry, I don't think I understand what you're getting at.

And the "not there" moon?

P.S.

I only "worry" or get annoyed, feel irritated, sad, empty about things that I actually COULD have witnessed. Most of the things you mentioned, don't really fall into that category.

An enthusiast will want a telescope during an eclipse to look at the things around the moon, not at the moon itself.

The thing with lunar eclipse is that you can't see the moon. It's one spotlight less in the sky.

@Yosheel But it was a blood moon, and it was VERY visible. The day before, it already started to become a little darker/more red in color, so last Friday was the full, blood red moon.

And you missed it?

@Yosheel Yeah, go ahead, rub it in, why don't you?

Haha yeah. But anyway if the moon was all red and pretty a telescope would've totally given a better closer look at it. So there's that.

When there's no moon in the sky then other things get more visible. That's what I was getting to.

@Yosheel That's true. Your analogy was slightly off, though: the moon is not a spotlight, but a reflector...

It's more under the spotlight than the spotlight itself.

@Yosheel You DO know it's Sunday, right?
Stop confusing my still slightly inebriated brain with weird sentences...

It will all make sense in due time.

At the peak of the blood moon in the land of the cold summer, a door opens in the sky to reveal the path of enlightenment.

@Yosheel Cannot.... compute.... must.... ignore.... head... feels... like... exploding....

@ThanosReXXX Right, Amsterdam, you probably live in flat on the fifteenth floor. In that case it would've beeen very visible!

@Yosheel I did see some amateur pictures with a cheap telescope of Jupiter and its moons yesterday. I don't think you can normally see those with cheap equipment.

@Octane It's Amsterdam, not New York or Tokyo...
I live on the fourth floor of a six storey canal-side apartment building. Balcony hangs over the water, and I'm in walking distance of the city center. The moon hangs over the canal here almost every night, so from my balcony, it's quite easy to see.