Looney Eclipse

By now you have no doubt been able to view countless photos of last night's lunar eclipse and it would not surprise me to know the quality of most of those photos is far superior to what you see here. Well, that's as it should be, given the way it all came down in this neck of the woods.

See, first of all, I didn't even know there was an eclipse event scheduled. For one thing, I don't do television and for another thing, it just happened that I spent practically zilch-zero time on the Internet yesterday so the whole eclipse gig slipped through the cracks, at least as far as my attention was concerned. If youngest dotter Patti had not called me just when it was starting, I wouldn't have known about it at all.

That's too bad because, had I known sooner, I could have done some concentrated cramming on the fine art of moon/night photography and set up my tripod and all that good stuff. I coulda been a conTENduh. Yeah.

As it was, I stumbled through a few dozen shots from the balcony out front, bracing the camera on top of the railing and setting the mode dial to Night. No time to figure out manual exposure controls, which would have worked better had I only known what to do. If anyone in the cars going by below had happened to look up, I'm sure they would have thought I was taking clandestine pictures of my neighbors across the highway. Which means they will not only think I am a poster child for the nosy liddle ol' leddy category, they'll be wondering what the neighbors are doing that is so juicy.

In spite of my lack of preparedness, I did manage to score this one barely decent shot just before full eclipse. In my particular location, the eclipse was already well underway before the moon finally popped up over the hill to the east of me. In fact, that's why the pattern on the face of the moon looks so strange. What you are seeing is the silhouette of the trees crowning the hill because the lunar orb had not yet cleared them.

I learned a few things. I learned the zoom lens is extremely helpful for moon shots. I learned I should have really, really, REALLY set up the tripod. I learned this was most definitely one of those times when a working knowledge of shutter and aperture settings would have probably been better for my purposes than any of the mode settings. I learned I should not have quit trying so soon -- the next total lunar eclipse won't be for a couple more years. I would have had time to set up the tripod and snap more photos when the moon started coming out of the shadow. Wasted that opportunity, that's what. Durn it.

Most of all, I learned -- once again -- I have an awful lot to learn.

Which, when you think about it, is a Good Thang. If you already knew everything, what would you have to look forward to? Please do not point out the fallacy in that argument. I'm trying to console myself.