Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

October 4, 2015

Super Moon and Blood Moon

Unless you were living under a rock, you are pretty much all aware of the unusual circumstances for the full moon on September 27.  Not only was it a super moon, there was going to be a total eclipse turning it into the red blood moon too.  The next one like this won't happen till something like 2033.

It was going to start a little after 9 and peak about 11.  I was sooo tired and I didn't feel like dragging out the tripod and all that.  I just wanted to go to bed.  While I did check it out a few times to see the phases, I didn't feel like shooting them.  It was kinda cool to see how bright my yard was at 8:30 and then get progressively darker every time I looked outside. I wrote as my status that there was no way I was going to stay awake that late.  One of my friends commented, in all caps no less, that I should get my butt out there and shoot the damn thing.  The way she worded it made me laugh, so I was like, 'FINE!' but it came out like 'FINE-AH'.  

I grabbed the tripod from the other room, attached the zoom lens, screwed the camera onto the tripod head, a flashlight and my new cable shutter release and went outside.  

OK so it was getting pretty cool.  I'd already done night time photography adjustments in the manual settings so I went out there and started messing around with exposure times.  

I should've written down each exposure time.  I did 1, 2, 3 and 4 seconds; a couple were longer.  The first pic was taken at 10:24 pm, the last at 10:29.


Despite my best efforts and a much easier to see object, I just couldn't get the focus quite right.  But the cable shutter release is a godsend.  I haven't been able to effectively shoot on the bulb setting no matter how still I thought I was standing.  Even when it was on the tripod, just pressing down the shutter was enough to shake the camera.  


While I was waiting for the red to take over more, I tried some shots of the stars but they were all pretty bad because of the focus problem.  I'll have to work on that more.

I decided I'd had about enough and wanted to go inside.  I adjusted the focus one last time and snapped what is probably the best picture I've ever taken in my life.  Not only is the moon crisp, the stars look great too.  I entered it in NASA's photo contest but I don't really hold out any hope of winning based on the volume of submissions.



27 comments:

  1. So glad you friend told you to get off your butt because you ended up with some really good pictures. That last one is a beaut. I didn't see it because of clouds unfortunately. I was annoyed because the clouds disappeared after it was all over.

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    1. Thanks Jo! I really lucked out with that last photo for sure. A lot of people mentioned the cloudy weather. We were supposed to have it too but we lucked out.

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  2. Beautiful photos! Thanks so much for taking photos and sharing. :-)

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    1. Thank you! I'm kinda glad I did it too.

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  3. I hope this wins, it's such a gorgeous photo!

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    1. Thanks Carolyn. I haven't looked to see when they are judging the pics. As I said, millions of people shot the eclipse so my chances are pretty slim.

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  4. Trust me, some people appear to live under rocks! Your photos are great, of course! I couldn't even get an image.

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    1. Thanks! I saw the winners on the NASA site and I wasn't one of them. lol

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  5. Sorry if my message arrived more than once, it didn't appear to be going at all at first. Then it did...

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  6. wow those are some amazing shots! I just couldn't stay up for the show, but I've been enjoying everyone's pictures!

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    1. Thank you! I was barely able to stay up to get the pics myself.

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  7. Gorgeous last photo and more than I got to see. Thanks for your effort, JoJo!

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    1. Thank you very much! I heard it was very cloudy in a lot of Canada and the USA.

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  8. That last photo is AMAZING!

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    1. Thanks Liz! I was pretty surprised when I looked at it on the computer afterwards. It got a lot of great feedback on Facebook.

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  9. Anonymous8:16 AM

    I am so glad your friend pushed you to take those pictures. They turned out amazing and a few years from now, you're going to look back and be like, "Damn, I'm good!" ;)

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    1. Thank you and me too! Although I don't think I have ever been like, 'damn I'm good'. hahaha More like, 'damn that camera and ma nature are good'.

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  10. I didn't get pictures, but I saw it. So pretty. Your pictures show exactly what it looked like.

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    1. Thank you! I kinda wish I had taken the time to shoot more of the phases but it just took too long. It started right before 9 and ended after 11. I needed my sleep!

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  11. Great pictures. I didn't get to see it for myself. Too many clouds. :( Glad you got pictures. It truly looks amazing!

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    1. Thanks Kathy! I'm pretty glad I stayed up too.

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  12. Hi Jojo, The pics of the moon are super cool. The blood moon is
    pretty amazing and if you have someone (not I lol) who takes really
    great photo's, it's wonderful to see up close. Thanks for always dropping
    by at my blog. You're a champ.
    Cheers, Anita.

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    1. Thanks Anita! A lot of my friends were trying to shoot it with their phones with fairly poor results. And I love visiting your blog - you are a very gifted knitter/crafter!

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  13. Anonymous6:42 AM

    Such great shots JoJo! I have issues with my camera shaking at the press of the button too. I'm shopping around for a new one. Any suggestions??

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    1. Thanks! My Canon Rebel T3i has image stabilization but that's not going to help when it's that dark out. You need a cable shutter remote that plugs into the camera so that you can trip the shutter without having to touch the camera on the tripod.

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  14. Amazing photos,especially the last one.

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    1. Thanks Anne! I got so lucky with that last picture!

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