La Lune, originally uploaded by jasohill.
Did you catch the total lunar eclipse on August 28, 2007? It wasn’t hard to see from Matsuo, Hachimantai City. All I had to do was look up. There were clear skies all evening. Still, it wasn’t an easy subject to capture. Even though my lens is a 200mm zoom lens, I still had to do a lot of cropping to get this image.
Many of my students has no idea how a lunar eclipse happens, so I spend the first fifteen minutes of my classes today giving them a quick astronomy lesson. Most seemed bored, but there were a fair number of students that wanted to know more. I’m glad I was able to reach out to them.
Update: English meaning section. I almost forgot to post what the Japanese word for Lunar Eclipse is. In Japanese you say gesshoku(月食) for a lunar eclipse and nisshoku(日食）for a solar eclipse. They mean “Moon Eat” and “Sun Eat.” If it’s a total eclipse of sun sun, you say kaikishoku(皆既食）、and of the moon, kaikigesshoku(皆既月食.）The more you know…
So I’m guessing the lunar eclipse happened at a completely different time for you than it did for us. I looked on a page and it looks like, for me, there’s a 13 hour difference between myself and Tokyo. Of course that’s assuming that all of Japan is a consistent time zone and that’s also dependent on whether we’re (me) in or out of daylight savings ..
Anyway … so I got up around 5:45 that morning, which was about 45 minutes later than I had intended, so by the time I got outside it was already in totality … and a complete waste of my time. Oh well, I marked down the next 4 or 5 that I could see so I’ll just catch the next one.
My niece is 7 and in the 2nd grade this year. She’s learning Latin and Chinese, which is quite amazing in itself. The question I ask though is why is she not learning about things like this, astronomy, instead of a ‘dead’ language or a language that may be too complicated for such young minds. Ok, I kinda get Latin because of the derivations of the English language .. but these kids are young, excited, and soaking in everything we throw at them, so why not fascinate them with subjects such as the life outside of our atmosphere?
I took astronomy my first year of college and was hooked. We went out and watched the Perseids cross the sky knowing that I had to get up only a few hours later. I’d miss sleep, or pretty much anything, for a good night time show, even if it’s just a clear sky with nothing but the stars above. I think it’s part the beauty that we take for granted .. that these points of light are anything but that when you have the chance to look at them through the eyes of a telescope. Maybe it’s also the reminder that this whole thing is sooo much bigger than you and I. Or maybe it’s the millions and millions of details that have been put into this whole life, from the bugs roaming the ground, the rain carrying clouds, and the heavens above. I don’t know, but I wish that locally, at least, there would be more of an initiative to encourage and inspire these young minds because I think the technology these days robs them of their creativity and ability to ‘think’ with their own imagination.
Ok .. I completely rambled on your blog .. lol I am soooo bad about that!
Have a great week .. and apparently day since it seems to be rather early on your side of the world … and a Monday .. YUCK :o)
lol .. these long holiday weekends get me every time .. i guess you’re on a tuesday and NOT a monday .. :o)