I'm tired.
I've been desperately trying to nap in the face of a full blown nattering session of my daughter. I've finally given up fighting against her stream of consciousness. It was time I wrote up this post anyway.
The reason that I am tired, of course, is that I was up until the wee hours observing and photographing this morning's eclipse. One of the main significances of the eclipse falling on the equinox is that the moon traveled pretty much through the centre of the Earth's shadow, resulting in a long time at totality, 72 minutes. It was incredible.
I woke Travis up for the start of the eclipse, and after he had his fill of watching the shadow biting off parts of the moon, he went back to bed, telling me to wake him up during totality.
I tried. He woke up, told me he was staying in bed, and to show him photos in the morning. Which, of course, he couldn't remember telling me when he awoke this morning and thus was thoroughly ticked off at me for not waking him. Hilary, the sanest of us all, woke up and knew right away that she'd prefer to experience it through photographs, and was quite happy to go back to sleep having made that decision.
So, on to some of the photos.
This is the Moon at a little less than half eclipse, and one of my favourite of the night. It took me a while to get the exposure right, as I often forget that the Moon is a rock in bright sunlight, and usually over expose it.
The next two are two different takes of the Moon a little farther along, one exposing the shadowed portion, the other the sunlit portion.
This photo is one of my favourites of the hundred or so I took, and it is purely an accident. This is the moon at almost totality. Lens flare adds a nice touch to the photo I think, the Moon's reflection in my lens.
As the eclipse deepened, the night sky darkened, bringing more and more stars into view, and making their magnitude appear to grow. This, while not spectacular, is one of my favourite pieces of the night sky, the constellation Pleiades, the seven sisters.
Here is the Moon at totality, shortly after the last vestige of it disappeared into the shadow.
Here the Moon hangs above Orion, his belt just visible above the hills behind our house. Depending on your monitor it may be hard to see the hills in the glow of the street lights.
And finally here is the wider view, our Moon hanging in the bejewelled night sky. This is truly a wonder filled world we live in.
Comments
18 responses
Stunning pictures. Thank you for sharing these! I am inspired now to start playing with exposures. I took some tonight and they were WAY overexposed.
Cheers,
Mungo
http://MungoSaysBah.com
Great shots! Thanks for letting me see the eclipse (darned clouds). You got better shots than CBC! 😀
Wow, Clare! When are you putting your application in with NASA? Those are incredible photos.
Nice shots!
Thanks Mungo. For normal photos of the Moon you can remember the “Sunny 16” rule. At f16 your shutter speed should match your ASA (ISO). That works for any grey object in bright sunlight btw.
Thanks Michael. Too bad that it was cloudy there, next one in Dec 2011 may be tricky to see in many parts because it occurs around moonset.
Thanks Nancy. I should work for NASA as people said I took up space in school.
Thanks Dave.
I commented on your FB page, but I just have to tell you here as well how amazing your photos are! National Geographic, NASA, any of them…you have a special talent. I didn’t see the ones from CBC, but I’m yours really are better!
Wow!
Fantastic!!! Thank you thank you 🙂 Love the one with the hills and Orion as well as the lens flare – new perspectives.
Wow is right! These are stunning, Clare.
Thank you very much Melodie. I saw your comment on FB as well.
Thanks em. I take it Iqaluit was as overcast as predicted?
Thank you Jessamyn, and for the shout out on FB as well.
Overcast yes. Earlier in the evening some clear pockets kept me hopeful, but about 20 minutes before totality, a huge bank of clouds came in and didn’t leave until well afterward.
Perhaps you could send a few of your photos to an excellent Canadian Publication – Sky News. http://www.skynews.ca They publish a lot of photos from amateur and professional sky observers. We were clouded over in Vancouver so missed the show. Thanks for posting your wonderful photos.
In the haze of diapers and cartoons I hadn’t even heard it was happening till the next day. I was really disappointed. Thanks for sharing the pictures. They’re great, almost like seeing it live.
we missed it because of cloud cover in California…so THANK YOU for staying up and documenting this great event! And you’re right, tricky exposure! The shots are amazing !
Thanks em.
I’ll look into it Maureen, thanks. I’m usually quite intimidated by photos of the night sky, mine never seem to measure up to the ones I see published, at least in my mind’s eye.
I love that Morena “Haze of diapers and cartoons”. Too bad you missed it though.
Thank you Tara. It is a pity you couldn’t see it. And by the sounds of things California has been getting some awful weather. And here I thought it was always sunny or clear there.
What fantastic pictures of the moon & stars! What kind of camera do you have? Our family is planning on moving to Iqaluit in a few months and I’m looking to update my camera…
Hi Katie. Thanks. I use a Canon Rebel XTi with various lens, although I’m looking at upgrading to a Canon 5D Mark II at some point when I can afford it.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve got a Nikon…I think I’ll be getting some new lenses before we move. There seems to be an abundance of beauty in Nunavut from the blogs I’ve been reading. Looking forward to seeing it in person! Have a great day!
No Problem Katie. I’ve found that the investment in good lenses is more than paid off in the quality of photos. There is an abundance of beauty here, it is one of the earth’s magical places.