A lunar eclipse night
Categories: Photography, Photographs, Weather, snow
I might be perhaps a little crazy… but here’s a link to a set of lunar eclipse photos I took. I was excited to get to see the eclipse at all given that it was snowing (hurray) earlier this afternoon! I went outside 3 different times - I found my tripod for the 2nd and 3rd. So, my tripod is aluminum or stainless steel or something equally shiny and silver. It’s sturdy, not terribly light but not too heavy and is “on loan” from my dad. (Hi Dad, um… yeah, I still have your tripod.) It also gets cold very quickly. Very very quickly. And it stays cold. Plus it’s 25° out there tonight. The first time I went out, I didn’t wear mittens or gloves - after that I took my fingerless gloves
(thanks so much again, Violet! They continue to be perfect!) and wore a more wind-resistant coat. Yes, it’s windy tonight too!
Mike’s night photos (specifically his mooning) inspired me to actually find my tripod and use it for a change as opposed to just thinking about it. His eclipse photos are also full of awesome.
The third time out I realized that my tripod-fu is indeed lacking. The moon was almost directly overhead. I wanted to be able to look through my viewfinder and my back was not exactly thrilled with the contortions I’d already done. So… I ended up kneeling on the sidewalk to look up through my viewfinder.
Did I mention that it had snowed earlier today? Snow rocks. I love snow!
Yeah.
A dusting isn’t much unless you’re kneeling on a frozen sidewalk. Luckily, I didn’t mind. My knees were a little less happy though.
Ultimately though, I’m not the brightest girl on the planet tonight.
But I have awesome photos!
Finally… what is up with this green shadow/reflection? I think it has something to do with the length of the lens? I used a 300mm zoom with a UV filter to take these shots. (Juli’s Google-fu points at the UV filter as the culprit.) Of course, it only happened the 3rd time I went out so it could have been some of my electronics telling me it was too cold and could I please stop taking them in and out of the house. (Note: the tripod didn’t care. Nor did it warm up much in the house between shoots.) I’m too tired right now to go research it so if anyone knows, please share!
So, in short, I had a lovely evening. It was cold, clear, brisk and fun. And it was the last chance to play with a full lunar eclipse until December, 2010!
tags: , cold, lunar eclipse, moon, photographs, photography, snow, weather
February 21st, 2008 at 5:59 am
Your pictures Rock! As I expected, the greeness was 100% manifested by your love of the color, or the focal legnth; but that’s way less exciting. Also this morning from the “better than mine file”, I found this one. My un-awesome 200mm lens left me wanting an update and your pictures inspired me to fork over the cash… Time to snort through dealhack, etc until I find the money saving coupon of focal dream fulfillment. (and maybe I’ll buy 400mm lens while I’m at it) :)
February 21st, 2008 at 8:17 am
Yeah eclipse! We got a chance to get outside and watch it last night during fencing practice. I missed the other two recently, especially with the weather being as bad as it was. I was worried about last night too… until… the sky finally cleared and we got a great view! It was a very crisp dark sky and it was beautiful… Did you get any with Saturn or Remulus in them?
February 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am
Wow, I’m not even sure how I’d start to create that composite photo. I’m happy to be the cause of of lens-envy, even if I get green moon shadows.
So, because I’m astronomically naive, where were Saturn and Remulus in relationship to the moon? (during the full occlusion or later since that’s when the tripod came out and I would have captured them) There were definitely some bright objects - I’m just not sure exactly what they were. They should have been wearing name tags.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:19 am
OMG beautiful!!!!!
February 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Whee!
Yes, I take responsibility for the mini donkey thing…
Beautiful photos of a beautiful goddess! Thank you, thank you!
During occlusion, Saturn was at about 8:30 (direction, not time…)
February 21st, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Beautiful shots.
The turquoise color is from filtration through the ozone layer. Ozone preferentially absorbs longer wavelengths, so there is a brief period when you get an emphasis on the high frequency side of the visible light spectrum. Most of the time, the effect is overwhelmed by the red light refracting through the majority of the atmosphere, with the blue light filtered out.
February 21st, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Oops. Addition: I thought that was a composite shot. If that’s all in the same shot, then I doubt it’s the ozone effect. Darn. I wanted to see the ozone effect, which is very brief and a sometimes thing, but I didn’t see it. It was too cold to stay out long without bundling for the arctic, so we were in and out.