Blood Moon in Three Springs

Reached for my phone from the pocket of the tent this morning, and just about dropped it. Did not expect the phone to be icy. Had to tuck it under my pillow to warm before proceeding to check the time, 5.40am, and the temperature, 6deg, feels like 2 deg said the BOM app. I am tucked up warm and snug, and have no idea how to emerge the rest of my body into the freezing outside of my sleeping bag. I now understand animals that hibernate. "It's too cold! I'll just sleep till it warms up."

We left a day earlier than scheduled as Astrotourism WA was putting up telescopes in Three Springs for the public to view the Blood Moon and the eclipse. The colour of the moon is caused by the same phenomenon that gives us the colours of sunsets and sunrises. The blue rays from the sun disperses, so only the red and orange rays hit the earth. Commendation to Astrotourism WA. It was a fabulous evening. We had a talk in a room of the golf course before looking through the telescopes. During the eclipse, as the sky was dark, the Milky Way lit up. The Aboriginals traced the shadow within the Milky Way and called it the Emu. So what we know as the Milky Way, is known to them as the Emu. In the middle of winter, the Emu stretches from horizon to horizon, so winter is the best time to view the Milky Way. Through the telescopes, we also saw a nebular, the birthplace of stars. The size of largest star known is about 18 times the distance from Earth to our sun. That's just mind-blowing. With our naked eyes, we saw a full halo around the moon, a moon halo, that occurs when ice crystals form at a speciific distance from the moon.

Back to Earth, it took us about 40 minutes to set up the tent yesterday. The ground was hard, so had to pre drill holes before screwing in the pegs. Left home at 12.30pm and arrived at Three Springs about 4pm. This is free campground provided by the council of Three Springs. We have a code to use the bathroom facilities of the swimming pool.

Sun is up and it is warming up. I'm going to attempt to get up and start exploring. (Grace is still cocooned and snoring in her sleeping bag).Read more