Wednesday, February 20, 2008

TOTALED


This evening, we were given a gift of astronomical proportions. We got to see the total lunar eclipse. It would seem that nature was against us at first. The day started out cloudy, then we were taunted with some clearing activity. As the day drew to a close, a veil of thick clouds continued to scuttle along the horizon.
I had a call from my gal Deanna with enquiries into positioning and location. She was takinf a car ful of kids out to experience the thrill of asronomical delights for themselves. I hope you found the moon Deanna! Me in all my wisdom, had informed her that it is usually up there in the sky somewhere!
I went to get my tripod out and lo and hehold, the mounting bracket was not on it. Nor was it in my camera bag! A quick rumage around only further established that the tripod would not be used. I was going to require a steady camera for these shots. That was, if the clouds would even be parting. I think they turned out ok all things considered.
I left the house to pick Heidi up at her work at 6.45. After I got her, we headed over to a dark side road. We would already be missing the first stage of the eclipse out here, as it would already have begun prior to the moon rise. Because of the mountains, we would only catch it already in the earths shadow.
The moon begun to occasionally peek through the clouds, offering a glance of her red face. The dust and particles in the atmosphere, capture some indirect light of the sun and cause a red appearance.


Finally the clouds broke up, the moon, in its scarlet glory(see the fist photo) was out for full apraisal, accompanied by sparkling stars. Once she was high enough in the sky, we scurried home to watch from our door step. As lovely as the show was on that side road... it was awfully dark, and my imagination was conjuring up all sorts of dangers lurking in the brush near by!
We were home for quite a while before the shadow of the earth began to slide away. At first, just a bright white crecent appeared at the edge of the red moon. As the face of the moon was further unvieled, it begab to loose the redness. The clouds, just whisps this time, reached their tentacles out to cloak the moon once more. Not enough to blot her out of sight, but enough to add a pleasant eerieness to the night.

In the later stages of the eclipse, the moon almost appeared to have a bite taken out of it, or even could be said to be wearing a cap.
The mystic event was at an end. There won't be another lunar eclipse here until late 2010.

14 comments:

Gerald (Ackworth born) said...

That's a lovely sequence thanks

Leslie: said...

Fantastic shots, Susan!

Outhouse Capital of Canada said...

Glad you saw the eclipse and it was clear for you. it was clear here also, I drove north of Penticton along the lake to get the moonrise over the lake pictures.

Jo said...

What beautiful photos! My gosh, those are prize winners!

Wasn't it a spectacular sight?

Kostas said...

Splendid post, marvellous the photographs, amazing the description!

Joan said...

I KNOW!!! Wasn't it great? Your pictures were lovely. I tried to take some through the my kitchen window, but the window screen made it look like a T.V. shot in the sixties. Too many pixels for the human eye to bear. Later after it was over I tried to take a pic of the the slice that was coming back from my deck, but there is only so much you can do with a frozen Kodak digital Camera. Dern near froze my nuts off. If I would have had any, mind you. And for the record, I don't. heh

Good job, I'm going to save some of them if you don't mind.

sharon said...

Wow, Susan, what a post! That was awesome! Great pictures...they came out spectacular! Oh, and I loved Joan's comment. LOL cracked me up!

Bobbie said...

I missed the eclipse but have seen great photos on different blogs. Your photos are great - thanks for sharing.

Enjoy your weekend.

Curtis said...

These are the best photos of the eclipse I've seen. Also your photos on your Day Off blog were fantastic. You just have an eye for picture taking.

LZ Blogger said...

So I'm not the only one who did this? I thought it looked well... extra-worldly! ~ VERY COOL! ~ jb///

Walker said...

That was really cool, thjanks for sharing

Dick said...

A nice set of photos! We had clear weather here too which is unusual for an event like that one.

Penny said...

We saw the eclipse in Mexico. Your photos are wonderful. I can't believe the spectacular shots from your previous blog. Definitely award winners. Absolutely spectacular. Also, on a side note, I laughed at your scary time in the dark. Reminds me of a silly adventure my family had a number of summers ago, in August, when the sky is full of comets. We drove outside the city and lay in a ditch, off the road. Although we had blankets under us, I imagined all kinds of creepy-crawlies about.

George Townboy said...

Beautiful! Now I can tell everyone I saw the Lunar Eclipse! Thank you.