In case you missed it, there was a total lunar eclipse last night. I was very excited about trying out my new camera and taking some pictures of it, but when I looked out my window last evening around sunset I was shocked to see that it was cloudy.
I said a few choice words because, dammit, I live in the high desert these days and I couldn’t believe that the one day that I wanted to look at the night sky was also going to be the one day of the year it was going to be cloudy.
However, as they say around these parts, if you don’t like the weather here wait five minutes and it will change. As I knew the most interesting view of the eclipse wasn’t scheduled until about an hour and a half after sunset I decided to take this advice to heart and wait for a while before giving up on my photographic ambitions.
I peeked out of the curtains several times while waiting for the beginning of the eclipse and was pleased to see that the clouds appeared to be thinning out. Finally I looked out the window and to my great satisfaction, the clouds around the moon had vanished and a chunk of it seemed to have disappeared: The eclipse was underway!
I gathered up my camera and headed outside to find a decent viewing spot, but unfortunately I live on a main street in town that had too many lights blaring to get a photogenic view of the eclipse. Not to be discouraged, I hopped into my car and headed over to a friend’s who not only lives on an extremely dark street, but just so happened to have a tripod as well.
I took a plethora of pictures just before the lunar eclipse became total and although point and shoot astrophotography is challenging, managed to take a few that turned out rather nicely if I do say so myself.
I then spent the rest of the time enjoying the spectacular view of the rust-colored moon while sitting on the porch at my friend’s house enjoying a mild winter night in west Texas. And just as the eclipse was ending, the clouds returned.