Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lunar Eclipse

Last night was enchanted; strange and wonderful all at the same time.

Last night as Gerald was heading off to work he sweetly came in to mention the moon was straight up and looked pretty. I had no intention of freezing my toes off but I figured I should go take a peek before snuggling the blankets about my head for the night, and, well, it was pretty. So back in I go to retrieve camera and a charged up battery, put on mitts, toque a warm coat and boots. As Gerald drove off I was tackling an old tripod, which is way to light to hold my camera steady with a 300m lens mounted, but as the camera was pointing straight up, it worked, sort of. There was a bit of breeze to contend with making the cold down right chilly but these first shots were worth it. To view larger please click on image.

Taken at about 11:57 pm with wide angle lens.

 Taken at midnight. You can see there is a lot of gauze layering the atmosphere. It is now officially winter solstice, the shortest day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.
 Happy Winter Solstice Everyone.

I had no idea what settings were needed and being dark and not wanting glasses on to freeze to my face, I winged it and played with settings never quite knowing what I was on. Pretty much all my shots with the telephoto lens are way washed out as in the following image; but the enjoyment of watching the eclipse is memorable.
The moon with a chuck chomped out. I had to use auto focus rather than manual, which may along with the thick atmosphere have contributed to the blown out light of the moon. With the camera pointing straight up I could not get into the position needed to be under the camera to focus in.  I do feel good about the the fact I even attempted this feat in sub zero.

 1:20 am

 At 1:32 am the shadow is long and starting to glow reddish.

 
1:43 am and this was my last shot that depleted the battery. I find it amazing at how much moon movement is captured in a few seconds. 
I  know that in freezing cold of minus 20 that the camera does very well, me not so much. I came in and kept my mitts on, wrapped my feet in blankets and rubbed them warm for about 20 minutes.
It would have been nice to capture the full eclipse but did not relish getting cold again. 
have a wonderful Day
Hugs and Joy
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3 comments:

Carol Blackburn said...

Awesome Teresa, this is the second elcipse photos I've seen today. Yours are spectacular. I was fast asleep at that time. We didn't hear anything about it.

Red said...

I admit I was too chicken to stay up and go outside to watch the eclipse. Good on you for going out and taking pictures. Nice shots too with cold fingers and all.

tess stieben said...

I would have missed it if Gerald had not came back in to tell me. I am glad to have seen it and glad to be able to share the experience with those who missed it.
big hugs and thanks for taking the time to post.