Lunar Eclipse
The alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. so I could get up on a cold night and watch the moon and its light on the water change with the lunar eclipse. The sky started out pretty crystal clear, but advanced into thin clouds.
I was just shooting with my old, little Canon G9, so I have to accept the equipment limitations, but the image sequence is still dramatic and beautiful.
This image was shot at 5:24 while sitting at my desk, looking out through the window to Puget Sound. Note that the eclipse was well underway. The three red light towers are on Vashon Island. (A street light illuminated the cherry tree down in my yard, and cast just enough light into my office to cause a slight reflection on the window.)
Here’s a series taken during the two hours that I watched out my window, shot at these times:
- 4:44
- 5:05
- 5:15
- 5:18
- 5:48
- 5:59
- 6:01
No, the moon did not “flare” and cause a brighter image in the third shot. At times I changed the camera settings to pick up details either in the moon’s shadow or highlight.
They had predicted a very orange moon, which my eye did not see at all. The camera did, however, in the 5th and 6th shots, when I adjusted to capture the shadowed part of the moon.
A couple of notes jotted:
- 5:58 Just a shimmer of light.
- 6:00 A wisp at the bottom edge.
- 6:04 Not enough left in the sky to shoot.
- 6:15 NO moon. NO light! Time to go back to bed.
Scroll down to view each phase, or CLICK HERE to see a separate, horizontal version.
