It's been pretty cloudy around here as of late, so I didn't have high hopes I'd get to see the lunar eclipse. I checked the weather for the mountains and it wasn't much better. Conditions weren't looking promising around 2AM, 3AM etc., but there was a window just when I needed one. Then the fog rolled back across the spectacle just like it did when C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was in town. There was an owl on a nearby roof and I kind of didn't believe my eyes due to the wishful thinking factor.

I had the company of a pair of great horned owls for a lunar eclipse in Tucson a few years ago as well as a magnificent Joshua tree growing in cultivation. If only it were as dark in our neighborhood as it is near Saguaro National Park East. Much to my delight, the nearby mountain community of Julian just became the second IDA International Dark Sky Community in California after Borrego Springs. Light pollution does a lot more than kill my stargazing buzz.