Thursday, 21 February 2008

Total Eclipse of the Moon

Were you outside staring into space between 10pm and 11pm last night?

If you were, you witnessed a Total Lunar Eclipse. Here's what NASA had to say about it.

"Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC"

Looking up through the bare branches in the back yard, I could see that the full moon was gradually turning dark orange. But it was really cold, about -12C, and not a cloud in the sky. Too cold to stay out there very long. I braced my little Nikon Coolpix2100 camera on top of the bird feeder and zoomed in to take some shots. Most of them suffered from a bad case of the shivers, but this was the best one.

No detail, but what a cool colour!
I'll have to wait until December 21, 2010 for the next Total Lunar Eclipse visible in North America.
Maybe I'll have a better camera by then.

26 comments:

  1. It was indeed a difficult shot to capture. I was one of the idiots out there freezing my... um.. fingers off trying to get some good shots. I settled for about 8 of the 80 or so that I took, and posted them today too. It truly was a beautiful night though - one I won't soon forget.

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  2. WOW! Don't apologize for that shot; it's great!

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  3. I agree! Great shot. Not so cold here and I was out there trying but none of mine were any good so I finally gave up.

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  4. Totally cool shot. I couldn't get anything but black sky on my camera. I loved seeing it, especially that last little sliver before it went black.

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  5. I tried to get a shot...I could see it upstairs thru the trees, but I would have fallen off the balcony! Your picture is great. How's the baby?

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  6. My pic of the moon is pathetic compared to Hilary's pictures... see the first commenter on this post.

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  7. I forgot that it was happening, and a friend called me just a few minutes before it was Total....He said.."HURRY"! LOL!
    I took a few pictures, but they were not very good at all....!
    Yours is really quite wonderful, I think....!

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  8. Aww, you're too sweet ex-S. Thanks for the plug. :)

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  9. Great picture. We missed it because of cloud cover and rain. I'm always curious about what the ancients thought of these natural wonders.

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  10. a had a clear look at it as well! nice shot!

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  11. Great shot of the moon, i am so glad that you got it I wasn't very lucky in that department, couldn't get anything to work on the camera till it was all over with

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  12. It was not possible to see the eclipse from here.

    Congratulations on becoming a Grandma (or Nana?)
    The pictures are lovely and remind me of when I bathes my very premature eldest child in the kitchen sink.

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  13. It is a fantastic shot, shivers or no shivers! I do like the colour.

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  14. You don't have to be ashamed! The photo and especially the colours are really nice. (You could possibly have a look of the same moon on Ruth's blog - she must have a VERY good camera.) The eclipse was also over Paris this week, but I slept!

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  15. Thank you for sharing your eclipse photo. It was so cloudy I couldn't see the event. It'll probably be cloudy here in December 2010 as well; seems like that's always the case in when something big happens in the sky.

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  16. Wasn't it just amazing?? I loved the soft orange/red. It was worth freezing my fingers off, as Hilary says, and actually never warming up all night! And now a cold. :( But I'd do it again in a minute.

    Thanks for coming over! Your image is great, I like the position of the moon in the frame.

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  17. I think the shot came out pretty good, too. Looking at the comments from different parts of the world, I'd say we're blessed to be in this time zone for seeing this spectacular event.

    Maybe that's what Baby Callum was waiting for... an arrival to coincide with the eclipse of the full moon. Silly little lad, he must not realize that his arrival eclipses whatever is going on outside.

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  18. I set my alarm for 02.30... I had Tripod already set up and in the correct spot, a flask of Milky Coffee, all my Warm clothes laid out.. BUT we had thick cloud cover.. I was gutted... but I've seen many shots of it today on the Sky Watch members blogs..

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  19. Wonderful photograph, well captured.

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  20. It is such a lovely colour. I didn't put my alarm on as they said that it would be cloudy that night so I decided to sleep on instead!

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  21. Great moon picture! Congrats on becoming a Grandma!!!

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  22. jeez...the kid is three already!!!

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  23. i think it's a fantastic shot! I was sad that I didn't get a shot, cloudy night in the bay area. thank u for sharing your view!

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  24. Beautiful moon, thank you for sharing !!! Suffering in the cold for us.

    And congratulations on your new grandson :-))))) !!!


    Cathrine

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  25. Brilliant shot! We didn't get the eclipse until 1.30 in the morning so didn't stay up. It was cloudy anyway!

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