I was up before 04:00 this morning. I must say I like this quiet time of the day, though I don't see it very often. Today's special occasion was a lunar eclipse, so I got myself wrapped up in sweater, dressing gown, warm socks and baseball cap, put on my fancy LED head-lamp and ventured out into the garden and the lane outside.
It was, and still is, as dark as - well, as night. It is raining fairly heavily, must be overcast (as evidenced by lack of stars) and is (I can confirm) foggy. Not even a glimpse of street lights from Dunbar, 7 miles away by seagull.
It's OK; I am not disappointed. This is another in a long line of events which I never saw - snapshots from a personal history which is notable mostly for its length. I did see the spectacular eclipse of the moon on 9th January 2001, and very fine it was. I had only recently moved out here from the city to the Front of Beyond, and the concept of zero light pollution was still new to me - I've never forgotten that occasion. Apart from that I have recent experience of invisible meteor swarms, and any number of failures to see the Aurora, though we have a north-facing beach within 300 yards of the house which is famous for sightings.
I once waited up for most of a night, on a clifftop near that same beach, to see the new British (Anglo-French?) aircraft carrier sail past, and I think I saw something large and dark passing in front of the lights of Pittenweem, so I have that down as a possible. Otherwise many years of no-shows. I walked across several farms to see the Red Arrows flying overhead on their way from Norfolk to Edinburgh, and they were cancelled. A long list of expected events - some of them very prestigious and historic - which ultimately served only as an excuse for a cup of coffee in the middle of the night. Like the inauguration of Pope Hilarius I, these things all passed me by.
I don't take it personally, I sort of expect it now - it has become almost reassuring, something I can rely upon, so that's all fine. When I think about it, I went out tonight to see the natural wonder which is non-appearance of the moon, and that is what I got. To celebrate, I was going to include a music video of Dominic Miller's Eclipse, of which I am very fond. However, I decided on this one, the title being probably a more accurate statement of what I actually saw tonight; this is Julie London singing No Moon at All, in 1955, accompanied by Barney Kessel, with Ray Leatherwood on bass and that's it. The song was composed by David Mann, with lyrics by Redd Evans, though the chord progression may well have been influenced by Chopin:
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