Sunday, March 4, 2007

The Eclipse

I actually saw the eclipse on Saturday (today, in my mind, since I'm still awake, but technically it's Sunday). I was worried a bit, since it was cloudy and flurrying most of the day, but it cleared up about 4:00. The eclipse was mostly over by the time the moon was rising here, so what I saw was a moon with a bite out of one edge. Not as impressive as the total deal, but still pretty neat.

After we got back from the grocery shopping, I left DH and El Burrito inside while I went looking for a view of the moon. Luckily, I found a spot here at the condos with a decent view. From our mailbox, I could see a moon through some tree limbs. When I hustled out to the sidewalk next to the street (three buildings away), I could get a clear view. So I came back in to grab the New Camera, tripod, and my scarf, and hauled everything back out to the sidewalk.

Three little problems came up. One, it was very breezy out at the sidewalk. Apparently our buildings block most of the wind. My fingers were getting a bit numb, and the buttons on this camera are too tiny to work while wearing gloves. Two, having the neck strap around your neck while the camera is on the tripod isn't the best way to do things. Makes it hard to take a steady shot, since the strap is short enough that I had to hunch over. My scarf was tangled in the strap, so I just left it alone. And Three, I haven't figured out the focus on this camera yet. Even on full-automatic, most of the pictures are a little off. But there are a couple that may work out.

I took pictures with the new camera until I got too cold to stand it anymore. I tried most of the settings - full automatic, semi-automatic, full manual, Scene, and even took a short movie of the eclipse. Then I came back inside, grabbed the old camera, and took a few shots from the mailbox. The moon had risen enough to clear the trees that were in the way earlier, and the building blocked neogh of hte breeze that it wasn't too cold there.

If I've got any decent shots, I'll put one up here later. Until then, SpaceWeather.com has a gallery of photos for today's eclipse. Some of them (okay, all of them) are awesome. Since I don't have a telescope, anything I ever take will be more like this shot instead of some of the more close-up photos.

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