San Francisco eclipse

Karen Aziz

I live in the Glen Park area of San Francisco, right near 280. As I left my house around 5:50, I first headed north on 280. The sky was a pale violet. The moon, which had already risen above Berkeley, looked huge and a large hunk had been bitten out of it's left side. It was quite shocking because of the apparent size of the moon and the size of the portion that had been bitten off. Also, while It might have been an effect caused by the clouds, the edge of the bite looked very ragged, like something violent had happened, rather than the benign shadow of the earth overtaking the moon.

I had previously found a very unofficial observing site off south 101. It's off the Sierra Point Parkway exit. You can get a great view of the eastern horizon and, except for passing trucks and cars that have taken that exit (not too many at that hour), it's fairly dark.

I took the 101 south exit off 280. As the minutes ticked by, the sky was getting more bluish and more and more clouds appeared in front of the moon, making the whole thing look very misshapen. At one point, it looked like an anvil, with a sturdy base and a very wide top. Still very interesting and quite bizarre. I got off the exit, put on my extra layer of clothes and gloves, and got my chair and binoculars out, and started looking at the moon. There was a light cover of clouds at that point and it looked as if you were gazing at a brilliant moon through shear gauzy panels. Also, it looked as if particles of light or dust were streaming off the moon going from right to left. As the particles of light moved to the left, it looked as if the dark night was devouring them. It reminded me of the "Dust" that is discussed in "His Dark Materials" trilogy which I have been reading.

After a while, as the cloud cover became heavier and heavier there wasn't much to see. When the moon started to emerge from the earth's shadow, the portion that was emerging again looked extremely luminous. A friend had joined me by that time and we watched until about 1/2 of the moon was showing. We both were getting cold, and decided to call it a night.

The clouds spoiled totality, but made up for it by showing me a view of the moon I hadn't seen before. I've gazed at the moon many times and always felt comforted by it's light. But tonight, for the first time, the moon looked very cold, barren, otherworldly, and ravishing. It did not feel comforting at all.

Karen Aziz