Blood Moon

Except that it wasn't

2:15am this morning:
I struggled awake enough to get out from under the snuggy duvet and head for the bathroom.  My feet hit the floor and an orange light from the window above our bed hit me in the eyes (no glasses on).  The "blood moon"!  How lucky was that!  (I had half heard a talk on CBC yesterday by UBC astronomer Jamie Matthews on the eclipse of the moon - to be full at 3am.  I think he said that the "blood-red-orange" effect is from light leaking around the earth when the eclipse is full.)  I headed off toward my bedroom closet.  Oops.  I thought I was still upstairs in the ranch house, with the moon shining in the south window over our bed.  Doco woke, looked around and said "Actually, it's the street-light in the lane." With my glasses on and my location sorted, I had to agree.  Took photo #1.  My "blood moon".  We laughed till we cried.

Then Doco mentioned that, when he was out walking at 10pm, he had seen the full moon in the east.  It would now be in the south.  So, while I was at it, I climbed the stairs to see what the actual moon was doing.  Was it an odd colour?  No.  Perfectly normal moon-coloured.  BUT, back under the covers, my brain said "Hey, wait a minute.  That was no full moon.  That moon had a bite out of it!"  It was eclipsing, and I had nearly missed it.  Photo #2.  We laughed even harder.

Photo #1.  My "blood moon"

Photo #2.  The actual eclipse with the moon half gone

Photo #3.  I at least can still see a moon sliver

Photo #4.  No more moon

 Having got this far I had to get up again in 20 minutes.  Photo #3.  The moon was almost gone, but no blood.  In another 20 minutes the moon had totally vanished, but so had the stars.  Photo #4.  I sat on the front steps (scurrying inside as the Globe and Mail delivery car came down the street) until 3:40am.  I then decided that either the clouds had thickened or the ancients were right and the moon was gone for good.   Either way, I climbed happily back into our snuggy bed.  Clouds permitting, we'll see tonight if the moon is back in full.
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Update, at 9pm the next night:  It came back!