The gear was sitting by the door; camera bag, tripod, a notebook, pens, binoculars and a flashlight. A winter jacket and a large cup of coffee would be taken also. The alarm was set for 3A.M. and then I slipped under the covers to get a few hours of sleep before the eclipse started.
The eclipse actually started at 3:02, but I really was only interested in the portion which involves the darkest part of the earth’s shadow crossing the moon, the umbral eclipse. This started at 4:09. Totality started at 5:16 and would continue until the moon set.
Some haze was covering the moon as I went to bed; I was hoping it would clear up as night progressed. After shutting off the alarm, I went out to see that the sky hadn’t improved at all. I made some coffee, got dressed and took my gear out to the car. I'm glad I had the winter jacket since the temperatures were in the 30’s.
The moon was already dropping into the trees at my house. Mars and a few stars could be seen once I arrived at my “viewing spot”, the local cemetery. The haze interfered with photographs so I just enjoyed watching the shadow cross the moon’s disc. As the bright sliver of sunlight got smaller, the darkened portion of the lunar disc turned a dim rosy color.
With the binoculars I could see the planet Uranus to the upper left of the moon, about 2 moon diameters away. (It looked like a star…)
Since the sky conditions weren’t cooperating with me, I turned my camera elsewhere and took some other shots. These turned out much better than the eclipse shots did!
An hour and a half later, with the moon now sunk below the trees and heading towards the horizon, the sky in the east had turned orange. While standing outside the polling spot, waiting to cast my ballot, the sky had rolls of pink clouds scattered across it. The day was definitely off to a good start!
1 comment:
Nice photos of a very nice morning. You described t well
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