PHOTO ESSAY: Red Moon Over Berkeley

April 4, 2015

Wake up time: 4:00 am.

“It’s 44 degrees and feels like it,” a text on my phone reads.

Alexandra and I file out of the dorms having only just brushed our teeth and thrown two sweatshirts over our pajamas. Telegraph is mute and icy, which is odd given how much life it held an hour or two before.

Alexandra is taking Astronomy C10 with Filippenko, and there’s a “Star Party” planned for the lunar eclipse on the roof of Campbell Hall.

10 flights of stairs later, the Bay Bridge and Campanile open up around us.

To my surprise, about 30 other students in the class have also donned sweatpants and scarves to stand out in the cold for a chance to see the blood moon through a telescope.

Eager Astro GSIs jump around with facts and pointers, constantly adjusting the telescopes to account for the Earth’s rotation.

“It’s a real thing, we promise.”

(Taken sans telescope, sans tripod)

We stay on the roof until about 5:38 or so while Alexandra fills out a lab exercise, and then make our way to Noah’s Bagels for an early morning / belated midnight snack.

  Still running on about 5 hours of sleep, the sky slowly begins to lighten, and a massive yellow moon appears over the Bay.

We top the morning off bundled up in the floor lounge with blankets, hot coffee, and She’s The Man.

Photos by Lana Cosic