Charlie Morson was a relatively ordinary, somewhat bright teenager. He had short hair that tended to end up in curls around the back, and lightly tanned skin. Average build, and somewhat ‘trendy’ with the clothes he enjoyed (A white T-shirt with E=MC squared on it.) He went to school, and in his spare time he took up an interest in reading as well as science… but his primary interest was Astronomy.
Disappointed that his college had no club to explore the depths of this subject, he founded the Astronomy Club by himself. His ‘group’ of three, including himself, was about to undertake their first observation of a celestial event. This was something he had been looking forward to for many months.
“All set?” Asked Ratchel. Ratchel was a good friend of Charlie’s, perhaps his best friend. The girl was helping him unpack their new acquisition. “One more hour…”
Ratchel’s parents were friends of Charie’s so the two grew up together as cousins. She had long brunette hair and liked to wear a necklace around her neck. She had light skin and was a little on the shorter side then most of her peers with a little more growing up to do. She had what most would consider quite a good figure. She was dressed casually, with jeans and a shirt as well as a headband on her head, keeping warm with a scarf and jacket due to the chilly night. Ratchel was more of a ‘nature’ lover then space, but she was intrigued to watch the event all the same with her friend.
Charlie nodded as he took out a lens extension he bought separately. “Yeah, let’s set it up.” The scope was the first thing they bought with the budget allocated to the club… a hundred dollars. Though they were grateful to have the most important asset, the roof of the school- which could be accessed by the fire escape. They were given this as their ‘club room’ and made do with it.
Ratchel looked up at the full moon. “I’ve never seen a lunar eclipse before… Do you ever think you’ll get to see a total solar eclipse though?”
“Yeah… one day, maybe we can get a trip funded…” Charlie gave a wistful look of hope. A lunar eclipse, such as what they were about to observe was very common… but a solar eclipse? It wouldn’t happen for years. For the most part, nobody even knew a lunar eclipse was about to happen as it barely made the papers. The moon vanishing for a while or turning into a soft red hue… it was gentle on the eyes so one could look at it really up close. It wasn’t as ‘dramatic’ as a solar eclipse but… he thought it had a certain charm.
Ratchel smiled again. “I’m hoping to record it.” She gestured to her phone. “Do you think my camera can pick it up?”
Before Charlie could answer though, a voice called out to them from the fire escape.
“Hey guys!” Heavy steps rattled the metallic staircase as the gate to the roof swung open.
Both Ratchel and Charlie groaned a bit. The ‘third’ member of their Astronomy club, a guy by name of Ethan. He was… a little strange. He was a sports jock, and not the kind of guy who was all that interested in Astronomy normally… He only seemed interested in trying to hang out with Ratchel. Charlie gave a glance to his friend, but she said nothing, motioning that ‘all was fine’. She didn’t seem to mind his presence that much, though Ethan did get a bit on her nerves.
There were ‘many girls’ interested in Ethan, Ratchel was just not one of them… and yet the teenager really seemed to really like her a lot and persisted. She never said ‘no’ exactly but… she wasn’t sure what to say to him.
Ethan was physically quite strong, with short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. The teenager excelled in sports and wasn’t ‘too bad’ at more academic subjects, but often asked for a little help from either Ratchel or Charlie (certainly preferring Ratchel’s help though.)
It seemed that despite Ratchel’s lack of interest in him, Ethan was resolute on at least hanging out with her… even on the most ‘boring’ of events. He brough out the tripod to set the telescope on. “So, total eclipse huh? How dark is it gonna get?”
“It’s a lunar eclipse, not a solar eclipse,” Charlie reminded.
The teenager tried to recover from this blunder. “Oh! Ha Yeah, I knew that. I just- thought it was probably happening now, that’s why its all dark. I guess being night explains that!” He laughed nervously looking to Ratchel. “Uh, so when is this thing going to happen?”
Charlie glanced at his watch. “About three quarters of an hour.”
Ethan groaned. “Oh man, that’s ages away!” Though he suddenly reached into his pocket. “Guys, I really wanted to show you what I found. This weird doohickie uh- the zoom on this thing is amazing!” Ethan quickly pulled out a curious set of binoculars. “You needed more equipment, right? I think this does everything!” The strange silvery metal was rather light, almost as paper. Yet it seemed quite durable in Ethan’s large hands. He messed about with the rotators on each lens, looking at random areas of the school with the nice position on the roof. “Almost feels like a sniper rifle heh…” Seriously... how did such a tiny thing have such a zoom on it? It even lit all the areas he zoomed into, like some weird enhancement program.
Charlie frowned seeing that odd thing. It looked like a cheap toy. Even their one-hundred-dollar telescope was going to do more than that. “I doubt the zoom compares to this,” he said gesturing to the large scope.
Ethan tried to insist. “Come on you really need to look through it. I mean- it’s seriously really good at zooming…”
Charie didn’t want to explain how he knew that a small set of binoculars was limited by the distance of its lenses. It would never see ‘that’ far, given the laws of physics. Ethan seemed to think he had found the ‘best toy ever’, but he didn’t want to bring him down from his achievement. “Well, a new scope is a new scope I guess… the club will need all it can get. where did you find It anyway?” Looking at it, he didn’t see any company name on the device. In fact, it looked rather shabbily built. A custom project by someone perhaps?
“Uh- you know. Just … found it.” Ethan explained. “Here Ratchel, you want a look?”
“Hm, Sure.” The girl nodded looking at it. “Hm, I can see the Earth’s shadow… but it’s tinged a bit. Sorta blueish?” she shook her head, rubbing her hand of a peculiar ‘ticklish’ sensation before returning them to Ethan.
Charlie looked up at the sky in anticipation as he focused the telescope towards the moon. The stars were… beautiful. It was a very… humble view. The shadow of the Earth, starting to make the moon fade away… “Yep… starting to get in there…” it wouldn’t be long now. The three settled into watching the moon begin to vanish. Soon it would become a pinkish red glow, as the light of the Earth scattered onto the barren moonscape. Maybe not as dramatic as solar eclipse, but… the three were having fun, and they had the rooftop to themselves.
Ethan watched the eclipse with the binoculars but was getting frustrated. “Uh- I think my binoculars are broken,” Ethan said rubbing his head in confusion. “The moons going all blue…” He started to point them towards Ratchel as a test… but everything was fine. He pointed it towards Ethan… and didn’t ‘see’ anything different (Except for the fact that the equation on his shirt had changed, but it was all gibberish to him anyway)
Through the binoculars, the Shadow of the Earth was casting a distinct ‘blue’ colour.
Charlie began to get a bit curious. “Let me have a look. Maybe the lens are a bad glass or something….” He got off the telescope and let Ratchel see through it as it was her turn to see anyway. The girl watched the eclipse with anticipation.
“Pretty cool…” Ratchel looked in awe at the sight, carefully watching the lunar eclipse. “Why don’t people get more excited seeing the moon vanish?”
“It isn’t vanishing for me with these,” Ethan said in confusion. “It just looks… weird.”
Free for the moment, Charlie took hold of the binoculars and looked himself. He felt a… subtle shock from them, an odd tingling that seemed to go through his skin. It made him shiver and almost made him drop the weird thing but thought perhaps just a chill of the wind got to him.
“I think its some kind of computer?” Ethan tried to explain. It certainly wasn’t a simple glass prism, that was certain. “But It’s pretty small…”
Charlie didn’t seem convinced as he examined them. “I don’t see any electronics… It’s not a computer, not at that size…” Though … he realised how unsettling it was, to have no company logo on it. Where did you find this…” It didn’t feel as heavy as I should be... Perhaps a cheap plastic? A little cautiously he held them towards his eyes, to observe the moon… and gasped.
It was just as Ethan described.
The moon appeared to be glowing, particularly the parts covered by the Earth’s shadow. An eerie mix of sky and ocean blue, as if the day was being transferred to the other celestial body on the night side. There were even sparkles of energy that radiated out from it. It was a literal ‘blue moon’, hanging over the earth. The celestial body seemed to shimmer with poles of paler orange and red. It didn’t look like a photoshop and neither did it look like virtual reality… but what other explanation could there be? Charlie was stunned by the sight, and somehow it… it seemed to evoke an odd feeling… “It looks… alive.”
The moon wasn’t like that normally though, was it? He had to look through the binoculars a few times and back to what he was seeing. There were some strange settings on the device… he rotated them a bit, seeing the image come into sharper focus. The light dimming sometimes, changing hue… but he settled on the lovely blue.
Through the binoculars it was no longer a dead world of dust… yet even those pictures have a haunting beauty, this was something else. The moon as a living planet, orbiting the Earth… Charlie was so overcome by it.
“I- I have to take a picture of it,” he decided. He didn’t know what quirk it was… if it was the binoculars or some peculiar shadow… but whatever it was, he needed a picture.
“Hey! let me see it again!” Ethan demanded. “It’s my thing-” He tried to grab the binoculars.
“Hold on!” Charles said holding it tightly- as the two pressed a button on each side of the machine.
The result was instant.
The blue moon suddenly ‘appeared’ into view, in actual normal reality. It did a strange starburst of energy, exploding in a dazzling display of azure fire. Charles looked in awe at it… so shocked he let go of the binoculars. The Earth’s shadow started to wane past the now glowing blue moon… slowly making it return to normal, back to its grey hues… and yet… there was still something not quite so ‘normal’ about it anymore.
