Lunar Eclipse

Of course we had to check out the eclipse with the kids. The Rochester Museum & Science Center was having an event with members of the Rochester Astronomy Club having telescopes in the parking lot, and a viewing of Saturn from the main telescope on top of the building.

We set out at 8:20 in, miracle of miracles, a clear night. One has very small odds of finding a clear night anywhere between November and April in Rochester, so we felt lucky. It was cold, even by Rochester's standards (17 degrees), but it felt a LOT colder with the wind. We bundled up in layers (and when Ella bundles up in layers, she means FOUR layers of everything...she smilingly imitated Randy in A Christmas Story--"I can't put my arms downs!"), but it still didn't stop the incredible bite of the wind.

As the eclipse wasn't scheduled to start for a little while, we spent a freezing 15 minutes up on the top of the planetarium waiting in line to see Saturn. Then we headed inside the building to play and wait for the Big Event.

We went outside at 8:45. To...a thick snowstorm. Welcome to Rochester. Yep, the car was mostly covered in a scant 10 minutes. It was "only" lake-effect snow, but clouds are clouds. The "photojournalist" from 10NBC was there (you can see that nothing happens in Rochester, when this kind of thing makes the news) to film all of the families crowded around the telescopes and excitedly watching the eclipse, but he mostly got shots of disappointed people crowded around the astronomer who was showing us printed-out charts of what *was* happening up there behind the clouds even though we couldn't see it.

The clouds thinned a little bit on the way home, enough that we could see a fuzzy outline of a moon that was no longer round.

But spirits were undaunted, let me tell you. We sort of saw the eclipse, and calculated how old they would be by the time the next one swings around. They'll remember it all the better for the bitter cold, and the sudden snowstorm.

The important thing the kids will take away from it is: We do stuff. Cool stuff. Even if it doesn't quite work out the way we originally intended.