I had not planned to stay up for this event. This meant that I was not prepared for taking pictures when it happened. But Sunday evenings are when I am up a little later than usual because of my weekly chorus practice. I usually have my dinner after returning while watching some program or the other on the television. By the time I got ready for bed, it was almost time for the total eclipse. I got a little curious.
I did not know which side of the sky the moon would be visible on. I stepped out of the front door not knowing what to expect. The sky was clear, and the temperature was in the teens (degrees F), with a wind blowing, and I was not wearing my jacket. It felt really cold!
Almost directly above me was the super blood wolf moon! I do not recall ever seeing this phenomenon before. It took my breath away!
I felt the need to try to take a picture of the moon. Although there had been information that had come my way about techniques to take pictures of the phenomenon, I had not read any of it. I had lacked the foresight to be prepared. I grabbed the camera, making sure that the lens that was on it was the one with the maximum zoom capability. Once back outside the house, I struggled with the camera – with the settings (I needed to lock in the ISO setting to a high value), with the lens’s zoom capability, and with focusing the darned thing on the moon in the poor light. I had no gloves on.
I managed to snap a few pictures, but the exposure times were too long, and my hands were not that steady! If I had done any planning, I would have figured out ahead of time how to set the camera on a tripod, and have it point upwards in a manner that still allowed me to look at the viewfinder. As things stood, it was going to take too long to figure out all of that and set up. The lunar eclipse was already well underway at that point.
I was going in and out of the house in between shots trying to keep myself warm. I finally managed at least one decent shot after many attempts. I had to back off from the maximum zoom to allow the camera to focus, and then lean against the front door to keep my hand steady. This is the shot I got.
The name of the phenomenon derives from the fact that the moon looks big because it is relatively closer to earth (super), because it looks red (blood), and because native Americans call the full moon in January the Wolf moon.
I am quite sure I would gotten a much better shot if I had been better prepared.
Splattered Brains 