Thursday, February 21, 2008

I don't know how these pictures will show on here, it'd be nice if they show up looking neat and organized, but I find whenever I post pictures they end up "higgledy-piggledy" with the text. (Ha couldn't resist that expression)

Last night we watched the lunar eclipse and I took pictures. It was a perfect night for viewing an eclipse. Perfectly clear ... the -26ºC was just a little bonus.

What doesn't show up in my pictures is how cool the experience is.

It was a full moon night, clear and bright. As we went outside before it began, the forest was brightly lit and the sky had only a few really bright stars. As the eclipse progressed, it got darker and darker. When the shadow of the earth fully covered the moon, it was really dark. The sky was covered in stars (as it usually is here in our area of Central Ontario. Gradually as the eclipse subsided it got brighter outside again until you could see through the trees perfectly well.

What an exciting event to witness. Although a couple of the pictures look black, when you expand them (click on them) you'll see the moon is still there.


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4 comments:

SusanE said...

Didn't you think it odd that the shadow seemed to come from the bottom left but then as the moon uncovered it seemed to exit straight up. I would have thought it would just pass over. Bottom left, cross over and leave top right.

Did you stay outside for the entire thing at -26C? That must have been bloody cold. I watched from my window seat and occasionally went outside to view it from the porch.

And i confess I didn't watch it none stop. It was a bit like watching paint dry. Action was slow.

Fiddling Granny said...

You're right, it was really cold ... too cold for a summer-lover like me to stay out. I was inside and went out about every 10 or 15 minutes and took pictures.

There were some hearty souls who were out partying on the ice the whole time. Every time I went out I could hear them. They may have been ice-fishing to pass the time, but there are no fish-huts, so they were out there in the cold the whole time.

Fiddling Granny said...

Oh, and yes ... I too expected it to go from left to right, no messing around. I guess during the whole thing there's enough rotating/revolving or whatever to change the perspective.

Cherylinn said...

It was so spectacular....John and I sat in the hot tub watching.