The weather was perfect for Wednesday’s total lunar eclipse.
The little bit of fog, low and below, did not get in the way of the clear cool
skies above. In Louisiana the eclipse started early in the morning and was
still partially eclipsed as the moon set over some trees at the edge of a farm
in West Feliciana Parish, where I was standing with my Nikon 500mm lens. While
watching the moon darken I looked up and to my left I saw the constellation
Orion high in the sky. You would never
see this on a full moon night without an eclipse.
Image# 20141008_0101 Lunar Eclipse
Waiting between shots I remembered the many eclipses I saw of
both the sun and the moon, while shooting night skies for three years in the
early 90’s. Back then it was with film. The anticipation was exciting waiting
for the transparencies to come back from the lab. Only then did I know if I got
the photo right. Last night I only had to look at the digital viewfinder. Next
May I will be teaching a night sky workshop in Southern California, where the
sky is dark and the Milky Way shows up brightly.
Image# 20141008_0129 Setting Eclipse
