Supermoon Lunar Eclipse

Sunday's Supermoon Lunar Eclipse is definitely a rare astronomical event. You may think that Lunar Eclipses are common. That is true but this is a "Supermoon Lunar Eclipse" !!!. What is a Supermoon? The moon's orbit around our earth is not a perfect circle. When the moon is at the closest point to to the earth (Perigee), it is called a Supermoon.  During Perigee, the moon appears 14% bigger. The combination of an Eclipse with the Supermoon is very rare. In the last century we have had only 5 Supermoon Lunar Eclipses. The last one was in 1982 and the next one will be in 2033.

Went to a neighborhood canyon area (San Dieguito trail head) with unobstructed view of the east.
As usual, there were many hot air balloons in the sky with people watching the Sunset over the Pacific.

If these balloons had stayed up  in the sky for 10 more minutes,
they would have a watched a rare Supermoon Lunar Eclipse from a vantage point!

The  Lunar eclipse started at 6:07 PM (San Diego time) but the Moonrise time for San Diego was 6:34 PM.
When the Moon cleared the horizon, the partial eclipse had started already.
Partially eclipsed moon rising from behind "Iron Mountain".

From the canyon area, rushed home to capture this mesmerizing Total Eclipse moment!
Sheila and I had our dinner outside, watching the Supermoon Eclipse ;)

Since I had already taken many close up shots of eclipsed moon, i wanted to try something different this time. I will put up my experiment in the next post.


Previous  Lunar Eclipse posts:
 
Blood Red Moon 

Just For Nithila 

கண்ணுக்குள் நூறு நிலவு :) 

There Goes My Total Lunar Eclipse 

Getting Ready For Sunday's Total Lunar Eclipse !!!

On Sunday, there is going to be a Total Lunar Eclipse. I am praying to the weather Gods to keep San Diego clear of clouds. This is the last of the 4 consecutive Total Lunar Eclipses (called the Tetrads). This Eclipse is not visible form India. Those interested in watching or taking photographs, please refer EclipseWise.com
Tried some test shots today.

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Santorini Blues!

                                                                                    Santorini, Greece
                                                                                June, 2015

Blue is my favorite color! The sky is blue, the ocean is blue and now I have one more reason to love the color blue, Santorini. Santorini consists of 5 islands. It used to be a single big island until the Volcano in the middle blew up 3500 years ago. The dome of the volcano collapsed and the Aegean sea filled up the Caldera resulting in the 5 islands.

Santorini view from the Athens - Santorini flight.
In the C shaped big island, the town of Oia (pronounced as "Eeaa" ) is the right most white patch in this picture.
Fira is the town at the center with the airport and cruise ship terminal.

View of another small town, Imerovigli, as seen from Oia.
All the towns are built on the slopes of the volcanic Caldera!
The churches, hotels, houses and restaurants  seem to be hanging over the edge of the nearly vertical cliffs!

The Armeni Village was our home during our stay in Oia.

Our cave suite at the Armeni Village !!!

The view from our cave !

Oia is the most beautiful, enchanting and picturesque town and is located at the northern most tip of Santorini. 
This view has been forever etched in my mind :)

Oia

Oia

Most of the churches in Santorini and Oia (...there are many) have brilliant, bright blue domes.

The northern most point of Oia. A beautiful place to watch the Sunset.

Steps leading down the cliff. The hotels are pretty much stacked up one on another.
Some of the most beautiful views of Oia you see in this post are accessible only if you explore these hidden side lanes and steps.

Stunning view of Amoudi Bay, boats and Taverns from the cliffs of Oia.

Souvlaki Row

                                                                                    Athens, Greece
                                                                                June, 2015
                                                                                              
The year was 1988. I was settling down and getting used to life at The University of Oklahoma (OU) at Norman. One of the  first international food I was introduced to, was the Greek Gyro Pita sandwich. There was a small, family run Greek cafe, walking distance from the engineering building. I used to visit the place often for a Gyro sandwich. After graduating from OU, I never had such an authentic,  delicious Gyro sandwich, that is, until this trip to Greece!


Monastiraki Square
The Monastiraki Square is with in 10 minutes of walking from the Syntagma Square (  link  ). Monastiraki means "Little Monastery" and refers to the 12th-century Byzantine church located in the square. Monastiraki Square is the hub of a busy shopping center, always packed with tourists. From the square, one street leads to the Athens Flea Market, and another street is home to specialty stores, clothing boutiques and souvenir shops loaded with just the things tourists want to buy !!!  Yet another street leading from the square has the most appropriate name, "Souvlaki Row", for a very good reason. 

Do I need a caption for this photo? :)

Walking towards Monastiraki Sqaure. See the street lights hanging overhead at the middle of the street !
That is very unique; I have never seen like this in any other country we had visited!

Church of Panaghia Kapnikarea on Ermou street;  a 11th century, Byzantine, Greek Orthodox Church.

The Monastiraki Square.

Fruit vendors at Monastiraki Square. I wanted to buy just 2 Peaches. The man selling the fruit said,
" Sorry my friend, you need buy for at least 1 Euro". I said OK and was shocked to receive 5 fresh, juicy and
very yummy peaches just for 1 Euro.!!! The narrow street behind these fruit stalls lead to the
Athens Flea Market.

This street is full of boutique and souvenir shops!

Souvlaki Row
If you visit Athens and would like to enjoy really, authentic, mouth watering, finger-licking delicious Greek food like Gyros and Souvlaki's, for a very reasonable price, Souvlaki Row is not to be missed. Located in the Mitropoleos street, leading off from the Monastiraki sqaure, the "Souvlaki Row" is lined with excellent Greek Cafes and Restaurants.  

As you walk along Souvlaki Row, waiters on either side literally try to pull you inside their cafe!

Outdoor tables clog both sides of the already narrow street, providing an enjoyable, upclose and personal dining experience!

We selected a Cafe called Σαββαs (pronounced as "Sabbas") which was opened in 1925.

This is how my red wine arrived !!!

Appetizer: Eggplant with Yogurt !!!  Man, this was melting in my mouth and setup high expectation for the rest of the food! 

Fresh Greek Salad. The cheese square on the top was worth its weight in Gold !

The Gyro.  It was delicious and we all absolutely loved it. Each Gyro costs just 2.50 Euros.
Next day, we went back to the same place for lunch (:-P...

                                                                                                                     * * * * * 
 
After the trip, I searched for my Greek House Cafe in Norman, OK. It is still there and I was not surprised to read amazing, raving reviews in Yelp, Google and TripAdvisor.  I also read a story that the original owners were farm workers from Greece who had moved to USA and started this Cafe in February of 1979.

When I had my first Gyro at this Cafe in Norman, OK in 1988, there was
no Internet, no web browsers, no cell/smart phones, no Yelp and no Google!!!
I know, I am dating myself :)
Thanks to them, today I was able to pull a photo of this place from the Internet !