The moon and his buddies

It's been a few years since I last watched the moon disappear behind the shadow of the earth. The last time was in the fall of 2004 - I think. While I'm having a little trouble remembering the date, I recall perfectly sitting outside in parking lot of the Dunkin Donuts watching the moon turn red.

There's something very cool about watching the moon change shape before my very eyes. I think the reason it appeals to me is that it's almost like watching a time-lapse event.



The dim red light illuminating the moon makes it a far less formidable photographic subject as well. Under normal circumstances, when photographing a full moon, I need to dial my camera's sensitivity way down in order to expose any lunar detail. However, with the fainter moon, the surrounding celestial bodies pop out of the night sky. Last night we were treated to the planetary glow of Saturn to the left of the moon and Regulus above it.

So why am I writing about this? Well, I'm afraid I don't have a very good answer. There's something about freezing my butt off trying to get a shot that makes me want to talk about it.