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(meteorobs) The lunar eclipse: well . . . at least my sister saw it!

A bit off-topic, but . . .  

      Two weeks before the Great East Coast Solar Eclipse of March 1970 there 
was a very small partial eclipse of the Moon (5%?) which occurred at around 
3:30 in the morning.  On that morning I awakened at the appointed time and 
viewed this less-than-inspiring event through a small 1.7" zoom (13-40x) 
terrestrial spotting scope.  For whatever reason, I decided at the maximum 
phase of the eclipse to wake my 10-year old sister, Lisa, to have a look.  
Her eyes bleary and half closed, she had a 1.2 second look through my scope, 
turned to me and said, "nice . . . " and immediately headed back to her warm 
bed.  I felt that it never registered in her mind at all.

Now, fast forward 31 years later:

       Because of circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to look for 
the rising Moon and the residual effects of the European total lunar eclipse 
because I was working (we were, in fact, in the middle of our normal 4:30 
newscast).  I actually wondered just how many people would attempt to view 
it.  

       But just before 5:00, Lisa called to tell me that she saw the rising 
Moon and a small scallop of the Earth's shadow from her east-facing terrace 
(she lives in Throggs Neck/The Bronx).  She said there was some pretty sunset 
colors in the west and that the Moon itself had a pinkish hue as it rose 
through the horizon haze.

ME:  "So you saw it?"
LISA: "Yeah, I used the binoculars you got me for Christmas."
ME: "How did it look?"
LISA: "Remember when we were kids and you woke me up in the middle
         of the night to show me some stupid little eclipse; I was so tired 
and
         I didn't want to hurt your feelings so I said 'nice!'  Remember?
ME: "Yeah."
LISA: "Well, I saw the 'bite' on the Moon again today.  It looked like that.

And to think, all these years later and I thought she 
never even noticed!  

Good thing I woke her up!    :)
-- joe rao    
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