Just to comment on something else that happened in the last couple of weeks during times when I haven’t been tramping, Stacey and I caught up with some astronomy friends on Wellington’s South Coast on Thursday just over a week ago. Specifically, we took a look at the 2/3 Solar Eclipse that was visible to some extent over most of New Zealand at the convenient time of 5.30pm’ish on Thursday evening.

I went armed with a solar viewing screen that I’d picked up from an earlier eclipse, but several other people brought along several other methods for viewing it, including everything from filtered telescopes down to pin-hole projectors made from kitchen implements. I haven’t had a chance to do much astronomy stuff in the last couple of years, but it was great to catch up with a few friends again.

As I write this, I’m sitting out on the balcony under a relatively clear sky, with a Full Moon that’s unusually dark red, tapping away on my laptop. This is because of the total lunar eclipse that’s in progress right now, which is the first I’ve seen for seven years, and generally quite impressive. The thing that’s come to mind over and over again as I watch this is that it should be possible to estimate the Moon’s diameter by estimating the difference between the curvature of the Moon’s edge and that of the Earth’s shadow. I haven’t actually bothered to do this, though.

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