It was cold in Philadelphia after dark on Saturday, but it was also a night of crystal clarity and the lunar eclipse was vivid in its passage.



No clouds, and Venus now a morning star, so the words aren't descriptive. Maybe, despite that, evocative. The words of John Milton have been in and out of my head for days.



Now glowed the firmament

With living sapphires; Hesperus, that led

The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon,

Rising in clouded majesty, at length

Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,

And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.



Paradise Lost, Book IV, line 604