Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Total Eclipse of the Treadmill

After work I went over to my apt. complex fitness center and hopped on the treadmill for a run. I really dislike running on the treadmill, but I'm starting to get tired of winter and sometimes it's easier than bundling up to go outside. So, I started off at a 7:30 pace (setting 8 on the treadmill) for the first 2 miles and then bumped it up to a 6:40 pace (setting 9) for the 3rd mile. When I reached 2.5 miles I was ready to be done, so I cranked the treadmill up to a 6 minute pace (10) and finished the 3 miles in 21 minutes. I was surprised how relaxed I felt throughout this run and was pleased that I felt no soreness during or after. I can tell my mileage throughout this winter is starting to help me on these short, fast runs and I'm looking forward to when spring arrives so that I can do more speedwork outside.

Later in the evening around 10:00 there was a total lunar eclipse which took place. Since this is the last total lunar eclipse to occur until 2010 I figured I'd check it out. Thankfully it was in the right position to be able to watch it from my window and stay warm inside.
Here are a few pretty neat photos I took. The strange thing is that once the moon was completely covered by the Earth's shadow it still looked primarily white to the naked eye, but when I took a photo with my camera on "night mode" it really seemed to capture the redness on the moon. According to an article I read on Yahoo, it says, "The moon doesn't go black because indirect sunlight still reaches it after passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Since the atmosphere filters out blue light, the indirect light that reaches the moon transforms it into a reddish or orange tinge, depending on how much dust and cloud cover are in the atmosphere at the time".

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