The Crazy Lunar Eclipse

Before Earth’s shadow started to march across the face of the moon last night, I photographed the full moon as it climbed above the trees in Redwood Meadows.  You can see the mist around the moon and I was a little concerned that clouds and haze may obscure the visible signs of the direct alignment of the sun, Earth and moon.  I didn’t know then that the clouds would largely stay clear or that I was in for a very interesting performance.

The solstice lunar eclipse started normally last night and I was out in the freezing cold photographing the progression towards totality.

Then, things started to get very strange… as the moon started racing around like an excited puppy.

I went to bed as the moon settled back down, slipping behind the Earth and into deep shadow.

I saw it looming large on the horizon this morning so it seems to have emerged from shadow and appears to be behaving predictably once more.

I enjoyed the lead up to the eclipse and the morning after was spectacular as well.  The odd bit during the actual eclipse was very fun too although I’m still looking for a reasonable explanation.

Please note: the moon trails were created by moving the camera around slightly during longer exposures up to two seconds long.  I wrote the story for a bit of fun not to be mistaken for an actual phenomenon observed.