Ecliptical Shadows

 

I’m not really much for eclipses. I get the whole astronomical fascination with the topic. But the aspect of eclipses that interests me most is how predicting them was used to mollify or terrorize other cultures — pretty devious.

I guess some of my disinterest is my sense that focusing on the stars is escapist for some. Rather than dealing with the very real problems we have here on earth, the notion that we might just hop into our space buggies and blast off for new worlds seems Pollyannaish at best. We have such a knack for fitting our problems into our luggage, don’t we? Okay (crawls down off soapbox),  marveling at an eclipse at least happens while planted on terra firma.

Which brings me to what the missus and I were enjoying during last weekend’s eclipse, the cool leaf patterns it makes on the neighbor’s house:

You can see them transposed right over the neighbor’s pipes. (Old Victorians often had pipes added to the exterior.)  They looked cool, shimmering in the eerie ecliptical light!

The way the light circles the leaves is amazing. I got another shot of the leaves on the  front corner of their house. curious how they blur against the background.