Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lunar Eclipse Photos

Happy Winter Solstice!  :)

Did you get to see the lunar eclipse early this morning? I hope you did, because this particular lunar eclipse event is a pretty rare event... the last Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse was 456 years ago!!!

We were very fortunate to have very clear skies last night in the New York Metro area, so we were able to view the entire eclipse. It was really quite a show.

The eclipse took place in our EST time zone from around 1:30 am to I think 5 am, so my husband and I got out of bed at 1:30 am, bundled up and set up outside to watch and photograph the eclipse. We tried to wake up our daughters a couple of times, both of whom were quite determined as of a few hours prior to stay up for the entire eclipse, but in the end, were near impossible to rouse from sleep! I tried waking up our 11 year old three times, even just to look at moon out her window, but I couldn't even get her to open her eyes. The teen at least sat up to look out her window twice, followed by a "maybe I'll come out in a few minutes..." So instead of it being a family affair, viewing the eclipse last night very early this morning turned into a romantic star gazing rendez-vous for two! :)

My husband and I set up our tripods side by side in the yard and took pictures every several minutes--apart for nearly two hours. It was pretty darned cold outside in the mid 20s (-4 C), so we were going into the house every so often to thaw and once for a bowl of cereal and milk. :) Why is it that cereal tastes so much better in the middle of the night than it does in the morning for breakfast?

Anyway, thanks to my husband's expertise and assistance with adjusting and tweaking the manual settings on my camera (you should see his pictures!), I was able to get some neat pictures of the eclipse. These are a few of my favorites:

1:55 am EST
December 21, 2010



2:00 am EST
December 21, 2010

2:12 am EST
December 21, 2010


2:19 am EST
December 21, 2010

2:22 am EST
December 21, 2010

2:34 am EST
December 21, 2010



2:44 am EST
December 21, 2010

At this point, the earth's shadow was now blocking most of the moon's brightness so I needed to do a quick adjustment to allow more light to reach the lens. Now I was able to capture the red glow of the eclipsed moon in the photos. We were already able to see the reddish hue of the eclipsed portion of the moon with our naked eye for the last 20 minutes or so, but I couldn't capture it with the camera when there was still a sliver of the moon so brightly lit by the sun.

2:44 am EST
December 21, 2010


2:54 am EST
December 21, 2010



3:09 am EST
December 21, 2010


3:19 am EST
December 21, 2010

I took my last photo at 3:29 am and called it a night. I was too cold and too tired to stick it out for the second half of the event when the earth's shadow moved off the moon.

Did you get to see the lunar eclipse where you live?

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your photos. I tried staying awake.

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  2. That is so awesome! What gorgeous pics. For some reason I must have been in a box because I completely missed it but I'll be sharing your pics with the kids. It'll help explain what it was all about because they just are not getting it!

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  3. Thanks for sharing the pics! They are wonderful. The eclipse was on our calendar for the last couple weeks. Unfortunately it was so rainy and cloudy that we couldn't even see the moon, much less when the moon went away. *sob* When on earth does that happen in SoCal? Darn it!

    It was too cloudy to see the meteor shower the week before, too.

    Next one in 2014. I'm there. But there is a solar eclipse in March 2012, so I'm hoping we can get a good look at that one. Looking right at it, as my kids like to joke. NOT.

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  4. Fantastic pics. I was fast asleep while the eclipse was happening. Y'all did a great job. Looks super professional.

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  5. It was cloudy here so we couldn't see anything. Thank you so much for sharing your pictures!

    Have a fabulous day!

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  6. Your posts about your hobbies, your kids and your husband always make me smile--a thousand congratulations on a night so wonderfully spent!

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  7. Awesome pictures!! It was cloudy here. :(

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  8. Christine, the pictures are just wonderful! Lovely.

    I missed the whole thing. Didn't even know that it was happening this time around. But I will share your pictures with my husband who just loves lunar eclipses!

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  9. WOW! I love this! I was viewing this from California and I saw MORE from your photos than I did from my actual eye. :O) Beautiful photography!!

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  10. Thank you so much for the photos! They're gorgeous!

    I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't know there was an eclipse... :(

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  11. Very awesome pictures, Christine :) I heard about it, but nah, didn't consider staying awake to see it... and now, I've seen it thanks to you!! :)

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  12. I'm glad you all enjoyed my photos of the lunar eclipse.

    orannia.. I don't think you could have seen it from NZ anyway because it was daytime there when the alignment took place.

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