A Total Lunar Eclipse

I started writing about the last full lunar eclipse I saw a few days ago. At the time the hype around this latest eclipse didn’t seem to have waxed, and then fitting this piece in and around work and life gave a few delays that were never intended. Subsequently the Lunar Hype Machine kicked into full gear and that just seemed to push finishing it, further away than desirable. Perhaps that’s best left to settle and linger unfinished for a while now.

Much of what I noticed last time, informed and guided me towards the Lunar Eclipse of November ‘22. I chose the same mountain, my local - Coronet Peak. This time, I decided to venture further, eBike assisted. The plan was to get to the top of Coronet Express and have a good old look around the basin.

The road was reasonably busy on the way up, a few folk manoeuvring their way around the Peak trying to get a good view of Rākaunui (the Māori deity who is the Full Moon). Just as I started pedaling, he made himself very known to me in the sky, acting as a guide towards the top of the mountain.

The dark shadow was starting to appear on the lower rim, and just like you can use the position of Māhutoka (Māhutonga / Crux / Southern Cross) & Te Taura o te Waka o Tamarēreti (The Pointers / Alpha & Beta Centuri) to tell the time, I was using the encroaching shadow of Papatūānuku (the Earth) upon Rākaunui. I had a couple of ideas of where would work, but you know, scrambling around in the dark, everything is always different.

I often try to shoot the moon at 200mm and every time, it just doesn’t seem to want to get close enough. I always seem to think it will be different. Alas, yet again, for the umpteenth time it wasn’t. A very mediocre shot, nice to have, but not worth the effort of getting any more, let’s face it, there are going to be hundreds and thousands of photographs of the Blood Moon in the coming days. 

What fascinates me is the change in light as Whiro (the Māori deity who appears in our sky as the New Moon and is often associated with Darkness) holds his battle with Rākaunui. 

The effect of a large Moon in the sky is never far from our thoughts when running our Starry Night Adventures. The light reflected from the Sun is so incredibly bright that it bleeches the stars, lightens the blue and coats Papatūānuku with the most beautifully soft delicate polarized light. Moonlight and weather are easily the two most difficult and stress inducing components of an AuthenticAs Starry Night Adventure. Tonight, it would seem that the weather has thankfully decided to play ball.

These days I find I spend so much more time looking at the sky as a whole than I ever have before. The process of weather forecasting starts in advance, then as the sun begins to approach the horizon in tthe lead up to a nights stargazing, it’s all eyes on any cloud systems and where they are coming from. I’ve learnt about watching and when to watch, then the trick is to remember what happened after, when I saw it before. Deepening and extending this knowledge makes life easier and creates much better stargazing.

As twilight moves into darkness and the stars become visible, knowing what is where, in terms of where I stand, offers me a certain type of connection that I think and talk about often. This connection gives me more of a sense of place and sense of self, at least in terms of fitting into the much larger vista. When Rākaunui is in town, it’s about seeing more of the terrestrial world around us at  night, and the more mighty features of the night sky.

Let’s take last night, the Moon was in Taurus. That means as it traverses the sky, it sits within the boundaries of the constellation Taurus. The constellation names are kind of like different districts within the night sky. Once Matariki was visible above the horizon, I’m not sure that I’d expect to be able to see it on a Full Moon night in Taurus, nor the head of head of the bull - te kokotā. 

I think I’d expect to see a feint Tautoru at the very least - Orion's Belt, in fact I’d suspect Orion would be easily seen with your unaided eye. 

Then comes the matter of the lights to the South, the Aurora Australis. Tahu-nui-a-raki isn’t often visible when the atmosphere is illuminated by photons reflected from Rākaunui. I also wouldn’t be expecting views of our Magellanic Galactic neighbors’s.

As Papatūānuku positions herself between Tamanuiterā and Te Marama, she casts a shadow and essentially turns down the intensity of the photons illuminating our world for a wee while. Standing where I was, it was as though I was almost on top of the world. Ridiculously still and hardly another soul around, save one brave walker weaving their way to the Peak of the Peak.

It was like the feeling when you get out of the car into a dark place and it takes your eyes a while to adjust. Not only do our eyes need to adjust, so do we, we need to arrive and settle in place. I was already settled, my senses were fully activated as the wonders of the night sky revealed themselves as if you were to travel through half a lunar month in 90 minutes or so. The passage of time for such a strong visual change is really quite staggering.

Imagine the feeling when you look to the South and see an Aurora visible to the unaided eye, what an absolute treat, especially on the night Rākaunuii is in town.

Throughout that time, pretty much all the stars, planets, clusters, galaxies, gas and dust clouds I’ve been observing all winter long were all popping out from the darkness to say hello. I’d wondered about how stargazing would change as we entered the summer months. It seems I needn't have worried so much. The Summer Southern Night Sky is an absolute joy to behold.

As totality approached, the yearn to explore continued, Green Gates was calling. Aquiick ride over would warm up my muscles and get my heart beating from exercise again. I hadn’t prepared as much as I could have, but on the whole, location number 3 delivered more than enough, until it became very obvious that it was time for me to venture down, warm up and reflect.