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Now you see it, now you don’t. Photo by Yu Kato on Unsplash
Partial Eclipse of the Moon. Tonight a partial eclipse of the Moon will be visible in many regions of the world — possibly yours! Get all the details here
November 18–19, 2021 Partial Lunar Eclipse
This partial lunar eclipse, the last lunar eclipse of 2021, is visible from North and South America, Australia, and parts of Europe and Asia.
It will be the longest partial lunar eclipse since the 15th century. Watch it LIVE!
Regions seeing, at least, some parts of the eclipse: Much of Europe, Much of Asia, Australia, North/West Africa, North America, South America, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Arctic.
That seems to cover pretty much everyone. If you can see the Moon, you can probably see the eclipse. What time it happens will vary, obviously, depending on where you live. For me, it starts around 1 a.m. So I guess I’ll be getting up early (or staying up late) to see it.
Only a small sliver of the moon will be visible during the eclipse. About 97% of the moon will disappear into Earth’s shadow as the sun and moon pass opposite sides of the planet, EarthSky reported.
The moon should appear to be a reddish-brown color as it slips into the shadow, NASA reported.
And if you want some tips on photographing the Moon, Space.com has you covered: How to photograph the moon using a camera: techniques, kit, and settings
You can think full moon without thinking werewolves! Well, maybe you can, but I can’t. So in keeping with the lunar doings tonight here is A brief history of vampires & werewolves in Ireland & the United Kingdom (and some of Europe)
There is plenty in this article on the literary roots of vampires in the UK and Ireland, but let’s skip to the werewolves:
Irish werewolf poetry dates back at least as far as the 11th century, with “De Mirabilibus Hibernie (On the Marvels of Ireland)” by Bishop Patrick of Dublin; the 13th century Latin poem “De hominibus qui se vertunt in lupos (Men Who Change Themselves into Wolves).” Also in the 13th century, the Norse Konungs Skuggsjá (King’s Mirror) mentioned Irish werewolves; this makes sense, as it was Norwegian Vikings who attacked and settled in Ireland.
There is apparently very little werewolfing in Wales. On to England proper!
In England, I had no such trouble: gothic fiction often included werewolves in some fashion. The 1839 gothic novel The Phantom Ship by Frederick Marryatt, based on the legend of The Flying Dutchman, includes a sequence with a woman who turns into a wolf. G.W.M. Reynolds’s Wagner the Wehr-Wolf features a young man who makes a deal with the devil to become a wolf for 18 months in exchange for money and youth. Catherine Crowe’s “A Story of a Weir-Wolf” is believed to be the first werewolf story published by a woman, in 1846 (it is included in The Best Werewolf Short Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Werewolf Anthology). Suffragette leader Clemence Housman wrote The Were-Wolf, which was published one year before Dracula.
I’ve read none of the above stories, but now I want to. There is, again, much more on vampires in the article and many more stories about vampires and werewolves referenced, so read the whole fang!
“Wait, so if the full moon goes into eclipse do I turn back into a human? So confusing!” Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash
In a cave no one can see the moon. Okay, that’s a reach, but it’s what I’m going with to keep our lunar theme going. These volunteers spent 40 days in a cave with no sunlight or way to tell time. Really? Because that sounds like the start of a horror movie.1 What’s this all about?
The sunlight was blinding when Marina Lançon emerged from a cave in southwestern France for the first time in 40 days.
The Montreal expedition guide was one of 15 people who volunteered to spend 40 days in the cold, dark Lombrives cave without any way to tell the time or communicate with the outside world — all in the name of science.
Science! Of course! She blinded me with science.
The cave dwellers — seven women and eight men of different ages and backgrounds — were volunteers for the Deep Time research project, led by the Human Adaptation Institute based in France to gauge how humans adapt to extreme environments with no ability to measure time.
"Our future as humans on this planet will evolve," Christian Clot, project co-ordinator and participant, said. "We must learn to better understand how our brains are capable of finding new solutions, whatever the situation."
It was dark, cold and wet in the cave — about 10 C most days with 100 per cent relative humidity and no natural light.
Except for the dark, cold, and wet part it sounds great. Forty days with no phone, no computer, nowhere to be? I might volunteer for that. Then again, the odds of running into mole people, subterranean cannibals, underground dinosaurs, alien mind control fungus, or cave vampires seems unacceptably high. But at least you’re safe from werewolves because, again, in a cave no one can see the moon.
Thank you for reading Thursday Things. Again, please click the hearts, comment, and use the share feature to send this issue to a friend who might enjoy it. See you next Thursday!
Or maybe a Jules Verne novel. I could see Forty Days In a Cave being a long lost Verne novel.