Lunar Eclipse

I am not quite together this morning.

I was up way beyond my usual bedtime watching the lunar eclipse.

It was cold out but so worth bundling up, filling a flask with hot coffee, grabbing my binoculars and craning my neck to watch the incredible sight. One of the good things about frequent load shedding is that Harare doesn't have a lot of ambient light, making star and in the case of last night, moon gazing something that can be indulged even in town. Somehow I felt that there should have been a music score to accompany the splendour of the event, music that built to a crescendo as the moon went from bright light to orange to dark and through the other side again.

For me it was not just the eclipse, it was also the changing display of the stars revealed by the changing moonlight, as the moon started to go orange the constellation of Scorpio suddenly stood out with clarity, other lesser stars hidden leaving only Scorpio, proud and easy to identify in the night sky, scattered like bright jewels on black velvet. Yet as the moon darkened other fainter stars were revealed, and so the stars ebbed and waned through the night.

Instead I had the much more entertaining sounds of the neighbourhood children, allowed to stay up late and playing with high excitement under the changing moon.

I was drawn to Psalm 19..

The Heavens declare the Glory of God

The skies proclaim the work of his hands

Day to day pours out speech

and night to night reveals knowledge

There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.