Clear skies revealed a wonderful lunar eclipse Wednesday night for those of us in western Kentucky. Despite the ominous forecast of more snow and ice after midnight, Heaven pulled her curtains clear for the final lunar shadowing until 2010.A crisp northern wind made bundling up a requirement for anyone staying with the moon show until after intermission. This photograph was taken at about 9 p.m., from the back porch of our home in the Mexico community of Crittenden County, Kentucky.
For those of you wanting to catch a sharp, closeup of such an event, be sure to put your camera on a tripod and zoom as tightly as possible. Zooming in under low-light conditions without the use of a tripod is improbable. You will find that holding the camera still enough for the timed exposure is virtually impossible.
The eclipse had almost reached halftime when this picture was taken. Earth was almost perfectly between the sun and moon. Light bending around our globe and through its atmosphere causes the moon to glow reddish orange. The eclipse will be complete about 11 p.m., tonight.
