Blood Moon

[Earthian]

I was eagerly waiting for the lunar eclipse and photographing the blood moon. ( i wish they could coin another word to describe this). As luck would have it, the skies where i live were totally overcast, (we have the monsoon season now) and i waited hoping that it would clear. The lunar eclipse was to start at 2244 hrs and the total eclipse would be around 0100 hrs. At 2000 hrs, i had a sinking feeling that the clouds would not part for this spectacle and i had nearly thrown in the towel.

Not wanting to give up just yet, i made a call to a person who used to work for the Satellite Application Center. A half hour later, i get a message that the chances of the skies being clear in my city was zilch and that there were locations ( from 100 kms from where i stay) where the possibility of having clear skies or at best with a thin layer of clouds , was high.

At 2115 hrs, my wife and i with some hot drinks in a flask left for one of the locations about 100 kms from our  home. I was fretting that we were late and may not be able to see the onset of the eclipse.

 

At 2245 hrs we were still some distance away from our destination and the shy was still overcast. But the moon was very bright and i stopped the car and set up the camera. The play of light from the moon with the dark clouds seemed demonic and i got off some shots;

 

 

The clouds were coming in thick and strong, so we once again went towards our destination and when we reached there, found that the clouds were still present.

Oh well, we have to accept it. We took a hot drink from the flask and prepared to return. On a impulse, we decided to go for another 10 kms or so. And we did that. And we were rewarded! The sky was clear!

 

And we could see the eclipse progressing. Quite fast.

 

 

We were thrilled. A truly heavenly spectacle.

 

Edited July 28, 2018 by Earthian
corrected time of onset of eclipse

[wilddog]

Just WOW!

[Atravelynn]

Delightfully demonic!

[Kitsafari]

hardly demonic - more heavenly! so glad for you and your wife, and for us, your decision to drive out paid off!

[marg]

@Earthian...just fabulous and thanks for sharing!

[Earthian]

17 hours ago, wilddog said:

Just WOW!

Thank you, wilddog.

3 hours ago, Atravelynn said:

Delightfully demonic!

2 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

hardly demonic - more heavenly! so glad for you and your wife, and for us, your decision to drive out paid off!

It was a gamble. Just imagine what nice shades of red and green, my face would have undergone.....if

1. We could not see the moon after travelling all the way there.
2. And at the same time, the skies opened up in Ahmedabad (where we stay) and others saw it without moving away from the comfort of their homes!

24 minutes ago, marg said:

@Earthian...just fabulous and thanks for sharing!

Thank you, marg.

[Peter Connan]

Good results!

 

I too drove a ways, but I ended up with pretty poor shots.

 

I wanted to get the moon in a starry sky, but the area I went to still had far too much light pollution, and we are in the grass fire season, so the air was not clear enough to get good detail shots...

[Earthian]

8 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

 

I wanted to get the moon in a starry sky, but the area I went to still had far too much light pollution, and we are in the grass fire season, so the air was not clear enough to get good detail shots...

I too wanted stars when the total eclipse was on. Same problem. Too much light pollution. Secondly, at 0100 hrs, the moon was nearly right overhead, and there was no chance of bringing any interesting element into the picture too.

Edited July 30, 2018 by Earthian
house keeping

[kittykat23uk]

Fantastic shots. Well after a month or so of unseasonably hot, dry weather we got thunder storms instead of clear skies so no blood moon for us!