2010 Eclipse

Last night, I had a great time enjoying the lunar eclipse. I went to bed a little after midnight and then got up at 1:25am. The eclipse was first starting to show at around 1:30, so I took my camera outside in the cold to check it out. The full moon was incredibly bright and it was reflecting off the snow...it was almost daylight out! Unfortunately, there was a thin layer of cloud cover over the sky so the moon was bright, but always fuzzy. I was able to watch the eclipse happening, but the pictures all look out of focus because of the clouds. :-/ After freezing out there a bit, I came in at 1:50 and took a few pictures through the skylight. I tried to sleep on the couch from 2-2:20, but was too giddy, so I just lay there. At 2:20, I got up and the moon was more towards the horizon, so I couldn't see through the skylight anymore...back out into the freezing tundra! I setup the tripod outside again and enjoyed the last part of the moon gloriously disappearing. Around 2:40, it was fully covered and started its transition to the neat red color. The clouds were staring to thin up more and every now and then I'd get a few seconds of clear view, but not enough for a good picture. It was so neat though, that I just stayed out there, not really noticing the cold. Around 3, the sky just totally cleared up and I could see the stars and an incredible view of the moon. I snapped off a few shots at 25-sec exposure, but in that time the moon moved a little even! I didn't have time to play with different exposures much before the clouds were coming back...I ran in and woke up Liz to come enjoy the spectacle. When she came out around 3:10, it was cloudy again. :-/ She stayed out with me for the 3:17 peak and pretty soon after that, it was clear again for a few glorious minutes! Such beauty! I was so glad Liz got to see it clear and star-backlit. Not too much after that, the clouds were rolling in again, so we decided to stop freezing and go on to bed. I snuck back out around 4:10 and saw the first part of the moon sneaking out and glowing tremendously. It was very cool. The whole thing was a great show. Wish my pictures were better, but that's okay- I have the memories, and these get the point across.

I feel a little crazy for staying up a good bit of the night, but it was worth it. God has created such magnificence in this world and some of it is rarely seen and only by a small fraction of the historical population. Why not make the effort to experience a little piece of God that is so rare? As I sat there watching the eclipse in its full glory, I couldn't not think about how amazing He is and how amazing the world is that He has made. I mean, the structure and function and consistency of it all is just amazing to me. Mankind has done a lot of cool stuff, but it just pales in comparison with the utter complexity of the things God has created. Nature is so complex and sophisticated, yet so beautiful and functional all at the same time. Who else could create such a well-balanced thing than God Himself? I dare say no one!

And, now for the photo collage: