Thankful for the Moon

I would have to say that the moon, and my ongoing fascination with it, have been one of the great inspirations in my photography. Tonight, I had the honor of capturing a series of the lunar eclipse that occurred on the winter solstice for the first time in nearly 400 years.

It was a pretty impressive thing to observe. When I first went outside (and btw, it was pretty damn cold), the moon was still full and bright. It was just coming into the first parts of the partial eclipse, and my initial thoughts were that this would be no big deal.

So I carted the camera and the tripod back into the house, and sat down to work for a few minutes. Upon my return, a full third of the moon had been erased, and it was eery to see it. All of a sudden, I began to understand why ancient societies would be so freaked out by this type of event, and I was fully engaged.

Over the next hour, I watched the moon slowly disappear until there was just a thin edge, and then the most amazing thing happened: the moon seemed to reappear, but with a blood orange color now enveloping our satellite. And the thought hit me (reinforced by a couple other friends' status messages on Facebook) that this was of the few nights a year when there is no bright side of the moon -- it was all the dark side.

So after reaching the peak of the eclipse, the clouds moved in and began to coat the sky and ended the show. I am now going to bed, having accomplished the goal of capturing the sky.

I close with the thoughts of a friend who is suffering from the pain of a failed marriage: We are slow to heal. That is always true and yet, you never stop wishing for the way it was. Of this, I know.