I know this is a little belated, but I wanted to share some of the photos my Dad took on the 21st, when we stayed up to watch the lunar eclipse.
We almost missed it. Mom had told me it would be on the 21st, but I somehow got it in my head that the 21st plus nighttime equaled the night of the 21st. Which, looking back, doesn't make sense considering after midnight, it would no longer be the 21st.
I was laying in bed, cozy and ready for sleep. Addicted to technology and social networking, I was tweeting my "goodnight" and started to notice that a lot of the people I follow were talking about the eclipse and how they were up late waiting for it.
So I double-checked, realized I was all wrong about when it was happening, and hurried outside to make sure I hadn't missed it.
I hadn't.
When I went outside, the Earth's shadow was just starting to creep across the edge of the moon.
I went back inside to tell my Dad, and we both went out and craned our necks to watch.
About halfway through, we woke Mom up, since she was the one who'd told us about the eclipse in the first place. So then all three of us sat outside and watched. We even had binoculars, although a telescope would've been ideal. The binoculars were still good, though.
And all of us were thankful that it was abnormally not cold that night, since that would have made watching the eclipse much less pleasant.
In the end, it was a really awesome experience, and very worth staying up for.
Enjoy the pictures! All are property of my Dad, taken with his Nikon D80.
7 comments:
Thanks for sharing the pictures. I didn't stay up to watch it, though I wish I had. They say this only happens once every 300 years...is that right? It was something like that. It happens rarely, anyway, is what the weatherman told me. I hope y'all enjoyed it. It's a very special occurrence.
That is amazing. I am so flipping mad I missed it. So flipping mad! I really appreciate you posting these...what a great moment!
I love those, Sarah. I got to see the eclipse, but not as it was disappearing. I saw the bright red part, probably hours later. Beautiful. And I'm with you, I miss the days when eclipse made us think of space and not vampires. And when Saturn was a planet, not a car. Then again, Pluto Has always been a dog...
@Lauren—You're very welcome! I was just glad my Dad took them. I almost didn't stay up for it. I was pretty tired! Haha And I know they said this one was rare, but I think it was the timing that made it rare because I know it can't have been 300 years since the last lunar eclipse. I've seen one before. Ha! I think what made this one special was that it happened on Winter Solstice. Something like that. Pretty cool, either way!
@Ariel—Bummer! We were very nearly off by a day. Thanks to Twitter, I realized I was about to miss it and rectified the situation. I'm glad you enjoyed the photos! :-)
@Mary—See, you saw the part I missed. I watched the shadow creep across, and looked at it as it was coppery for awhile, and then I went to sleep. So I missed the part where it went back to being a normal moon. Haha And oh yes, so true. I miss the good ol' days.
great pictures! my daughter and I stayed up to take pics too. Yours are so much better! : )
we would fall asleep and set our alarm so we could watch the whole thing!
I have to give credit to my Dad for the awesome pictures! We had some binoculars that actually worked pretty well, too. :-)
The alarm thing is a good idea! My problem was, I had already stayed up too late. Just about the time I was finally getting sleepy, I realized the eclipse was that night. I yawned a lot while watching it. Haha!
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Sarah!!!! I'm still alive :D
What a wonderful pics!!! WOW!!!!!!
How are you?!
Ilaria
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