Lunar Eclipse at Bald Peak

5.24pm

Looking Westward from Bald Peak

Our friend Eric had to work, but he suggested Bald Peak State Park as a good site to view the eclipse.

We'd never been there before add we decided to give it a try. We weren't disappointed.

5.28 pm

Mount Hood, OR

As we were setting up our cameras and tripods (I borrowed one from work so Sami could use mine), clouds started rising and covering up the mountains. We started to fear that we'd completely miss the eclipse.

5.29pm

Mount St Helens, WA

I'd been naively hoping that we could have eclipse pictures with the mountains and the moon in them. Unfortunately, by the time the moon came out of the clouds, the mountain was almost completely covered. I only got one bad shot of Mt Hood and the moon.

5:58 pm

The beginning of the eclipse started before the moon was completely out of the clouds. A man with a fancy camera and a giant lens packed up and left, but we decided to stay and hope for the best.

We saw quite a few bats at this time, but they were way too fast to get a photo of them.

6:03 pm

Finally, a clear shot of the moon!

We had set up our folding chairs down near the road because there were some powerlines we didn't want in the pictures.

Around this time our friend Aaron arrived. He didn't have a tripod, but he did take a couple pictures of Sami and I .

6:15 pm

The shadow advances.

Aaron had invited Isil to join us, but he gave her bad directions so it was very dark by the time she got there.

At work, Aaron laughed when I told I would take my ski pants and extra blankets, but it was cold and windy up on the mountain and I was glad I had them.

6:18 pm

Seeing the earth's shadow.

I think I tried every single setting on my camera. There are so many options to choose from and I haven't learned how to use them all. Prior to this event, I had only once used this camera to take pictures of the moon.

Christmas Eve Moon Halo.

6:21 pm

Halfway there.

I had a surprising amount of trouble keeping the moon in the center of the picture. Between the moon rising, the wind and the 18x+ zoom, it kept disappearing from the frame.

My fingers got numb too, and I couldn't see or feel the camera buttons. At one point my camera asked me if I wanted to "delete all" and I almost freaked out.

6.34pm

Another view of the earth's shadow.

When I was searching online for information about the eclipse I found an entertaining story about the eclipse that saved Christopher Columbus.

6.40pm

Three quarters eclipsed.

Around this time Sami pointed out that my pictures didn't look so much like an eclipse, but rather like a partial moon on a regular night. I decided he was right and that's why I posted the series of photos along with the times I took them.

6:45 pm

Close to Totality

Although I know I've seen lunar eclipses before, I think the was the first time I watched one from start to full eclipse. It's certainly the first time I've sought out a good viewing location and photographed one.

Mark your calendars - December 21st 2010 is the next full lunar eclipse.

7.05pm

Full Lunar Eclipse

We stayed a while longer after the full eclipse, but didn't have much luck taking pictures because it was so dark and the exposure times had to be so long.

We tried moving up the hill and taking pictures of the moon though the trees, but they were taking over 2 minutes each and the wind made things really difficult. After a few unsuccessful attempts to take pictures of various constellations, we headed home.

8.23pm

Saturn and Regulus as the elipse is ending.

I took these last two photos from our front yard. By this time, the moon was high in the sky.

The article I read in the morning, when I first learned about the eclipse, described this as the "total triangle".

8.26pm

The moon as it moves out of the earth's shadow.

I must have accidentally set the camera to take a black and white shot. Luckily, it works well for this subject.

If you would like to use one of these pictures as your computer desktop or you want to make a print, feel free to email me and I'll send you a full resolution jpg.