For no telephoto lens or tripod, not too shabby. Even without those it was a good chance to practice - see what I could get with different shutter speeds and ISOs. I tried to get more shots once the eclipse was closer to totality, but the reduced light meant I needed a longer exposure, especially to capture the red hue...and well...since I'm really awful at standing still, this is about the best I could get:
Unfortunately at the darkest point of the eclipse we had pretty heavy cloud cover (for Tucson), and it was late enough that I wasn't going to stand around hoping for a clearing.
Aside from more clouds than I would have liked, the weather was great. It was warmer than usual - even in the middle of the night in my pjs and a hoodie I wasn't cold. Based on the amount of chatter I could hear, I think almost half my neighborhood was out to watch. Shortly after the eclipse started I walked around the corner to Sky Bar (in clothes, not my pjs), thinking maybe they'd be broadcasting a telescope feed. Amusingly, but not really surprisingly, it was packed, so I bailed on that idea since I wasn't really feeling like noise or a crowd by myself at 1 am on a Tuesday morning.
I think the most interesting thing I learned about lunar eclipses, thanks to Wikipedia and miscellaneous other stuff on the internet is why the moon looks like it does during an eclipse. It made perfect sense that you can still see the moon during an eclipse because due to refraction of light by the earth's atmosphere. Apparently if we didn't have an atmosphere no light would reach the moon, but if we didn't have an atmosphere we'd have bigger problems than not seeing the moon during an eclipse. The moon looks reddish during eclipses for the same reason that sunsets appear reddish - the longer red wavelengths are more likely to pass through the atmosphere than the shorter blue wavelengths which are more easily scattered. Apparently, the more particles are in the air - say from a volcanic eruption or weather systems (that are conveniently located around the edge of the day/night border?) the more wavelengths will be absorbed and the redder the moon will appear.
P.S. I love campus when the undergrads are all gone. It's so quiet and peaceful.
P.P.S. Why does my motivation always seem to leave for vacation before I do??
P.P.P.S. If anybody's ever wondering what to get me, say for Christmas, I think these are super: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/e684/
ooo, cool eclipse shots. This week has been fantastic on campus without the students around. The best part's been the prime seat I get on the bus since the high schoolers, nursing, med, and dental students are all gone.
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