The last time there was a lunar eclipse on the winter solstice Galileo was under house arrest! Back in 1638 there was a full lunar eclipse on the northern winter solstice; it was the only other one EVER recorded. I'm lucky to say I was able to watch this extremely rare event this evening, the next one not scheduled to happen again until 2094!
And luckily for us on the west coast this happened before bedtime so we were able to watch it from 10:30-1:30AM. Watching the moon disappear is a great scientific observation as it starts off slowly and quickly dissolves to darkness as the hours pass on. Once fully eclipsed a red hue enveloped the man in the moon and the sky around it lit up with every star the brightest I had seen in a long time. Cue the shooting stars! Good job God...not even 10 minutes after the moon was fully eclipsed the shooting stars started lighting up the sky. I saw at least 8 or so from 11:40 on; absolutely incredible. I hope many others reading this got to witness this spectacular event.
Jealous of your early viewing time. I went to bed, and did not set my alarm. I'll have to catch the next one, in April 2014.
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