Some Surprising Photos of the Solar Eclipse

Hey everyone! I hope you've all been having a nice winter/early spring. I'm popping in to write a short blog post and share some photos of last Monday's solar eclipse. I was careful not to look directly at the eclipse and more or less tilted my camera up toward it. From what I read, the older (non-phone) cameras would be OK if you were quick about it.

So here are a few photos showing what the sky looked like as it changed. I stood out there about 15 minutes before the full eclipse (or partial where I was in Wisconsin). What I mean is, I stood outside 15 minutes before it was going to be as full as it was going to get. 

Getting darker....

I think I can see the curve of something different at the top of the sun:

I see some interesting pieces of colored light here. I'd like someone to explain to me what was going on with those, especially the green shape.

When the eclipse did arrive here (at 2:08:10 pm from what I read online) I felt physically more cold and a dark purplish-blue cast of shadow went over everything. It didn't feel like day or night or any other time we're used to. It actually felt like time was in a holding pattern. I'm trying to think of how to describe how I felt during the eclipse. I didn't feel in the present moment. It was like the past and future were happening at the same time for a few seconds. 

This photo is the same as the one I started with. I feel emotionally moved looking at it for some reason. And how about the perfect square of light that is formed around the eclipse? It looks like someone drew purplish-pink circles in a square formation.

And boy, did I feel dizzy throughout the day! Did anyone else feel physically weird on Monday?

Aside from the physical symptoms, experiencing the eclipse was not something I wanted to miss. And we've had some nice, warm weather lately. So it was very comfortable to be standing around. I'd be curious to know what time of day you guys saw the eclipse and how full of an eclipse you saw where you were. I know some people traveled to the states where they could see the full effect. And I'd of course be interested to see any photos you may have taken. So far, every person's photo I've seen looked different.

Last Night's Nearly Super Moon

Happy October! Did any of you catch last night's moon? I thought it was a Super Moon, but from what I just read, that moon actually appeared on September 29. Still, this moon was looking plenty close and plenty bright. I took a few photos of it around 9 P.M. or so. 

The moon was noticeably different. I have never been able to capture a view of the craters with my camera. Just look around the right side of it here!

How dramatic is this? Looking at the outline of those clouds will show you just how bright that moon was. I'm not sure I've taken any photos previous to last night's that show clouds with a bright outline. It looks like someone drew the outline of clouds with white chalk on a black chalkboard.

Last night's sky set the perfect mood for what Svengoolie was showing, which was the Trilogy of Terror (1975). Have you guys seen that set of three made for TV mini movies, each starring Karen Black? This was my second time watching them. It was one of those times where I could catch more details the second time around and some of those details made even more sense. If any of you have seen Trilogy of Terror, I'd like to discuss it with you! And if you haven't seen it, I recommend doing so. There are moments in these stories that range from creepy in an icky way to edge of your seat terrifying to thought-provoking. 

Tonight's Pink Super Moon!

I'm happy to say that I had a very clear view of the moon tonight! At times it looked like a warm harvest moon and at other times it really did look pink. According to what I've read online, this pink moon gets its name because of the pink ground phlox blooming at this time. But I sure see a pink hue here.

Isn't that a cool and unusual color for the moon? Oddly it seemed to change before my very eyes and my camera's lens.

I also got this sort of spooky photo of tall grass while accidentally leaving the flash on. I love how this pic turned out. It looks like a bunch of creepy crawly miniature hands reaching out.

And without the flash...

So I'm sure that like me, you guys have realized that night time is the right time to be out and about. (to quote George Thorogood)

"In the night time, that's the right time..."

In my case, it's the right time to go out in public. Although, does it count if the public isn't really there?

I keep meaning to take some night photos around town, although I'm not sure what of. 😆 It's just that blog material is a little scarce right now. But I'll get resourceful and think up something.

Oh, I did end up watching another one of those last minute movies from the library. Appropriately for this blog post, it was Night Shift. I liked it! It's a quirky one. And Michael Keaton is just off-the-wall manic in it.

To give you an idea:

"Nice Frame." 😄

I hope some of you got a chance to see the moon tonight. Maybe you still have some time to get out there. If you'd like to read a little scientific info about tonight's moon, space.com has an interesting page up:

April's Super Pink Moon is the biggest full moon of 2020. Here's what to expect.

According to this page, tonight the moon will be at its closest point to earth for all of 2020. And you guys will find this interesting: on Halloween of 2020, we'll be getting a "minimoon". On Halloween, the moon will appear 13.8% smaller than it does now! Now, we may be getting a miniature moon this Halloween, but according to this page from Farmer's Almanac, it will at least be a full moon! And that's pretty cool.

I hope you are all feeling well and hanging in there. Have you guys been out at night much? It's a great time to be out if you don't want to see too many people and it was definitely worth getting out there to see the moon tonight!

A Full Snow Moon that is living up to its name

Tonight's full moon is called The Full Snow Moon. That seems like a pretty appropriate name, especially with the view I have out the window. We had a hardy snowfall today. It's beautiful out there, but we have the kind of night sky that generally goes with snow. It's kind of fuzzy and milky so I don't see the moon now.

I did take a photo of the moon last night, and I actually think it qualified as full at that time. From what I've been reading, the full moon rose last night and reached its full peak tonight.

I've been learning a lot about the stages of the moon lately, in part from this web site:

MoonSign.Today

I think all of you would enjoy at least casually browsing through this site. I especially like the Moon Calendar which shows you the percentage of the moon that is showing.

For those who are into astrology, you will also notice that there is an indication for which sign the moon is in for several days. I've been reading some books about Moon Signs lately and have been interested in the information about the signs the moon transitions through. The books I've been reading describe how you could expect different emotional reactions from yourself and others, depending on which sign the moon is in. This got me thinking about how it might be good to have a head's up about that sort of information, and that led me to this Moon Sign site.

My spooky tree shot. It looks like the moon is in a basket.

I have another recommendation for astrology buffs. It's a book titled The Moon in Your Life: Being a Lunar Type in a Solar World, by Donna Cunningham. I like Donna Cunningham. She's one of those writers where you feel like a friend is talking to you while you're reading her words. Her work is really accessible. Even if you don't know much about what she's writing about, she'll easily clue you in in a friendly way.

Another web site I really like for moon information is the Farmer's Almanac site. Actually, I like the Farmer's Almanac in general. I keep running into information about planting in relation to moon cycles, and I plan to keep that in mind in the future. Anyway, here is a specific page the Farmer's Almanac put up about tonight's moon:

Full Moon for February 2020

I got a kick out of the art there. It's like the moon is some kind of ice cream treat. :) It says here that tonight's moon is called The Snow Moon because February is typically the month where the most snow falls in the United States. That seems right to me.

Have any of you gone outside to see the moon over the past few nights? If you're like me, you got cold and quickly hopped back inside after taking a look. :)

Happy 50th Moon Landing Anniversary!

I'm sure you guys have been hearing a lot about today being the 50th anniversary of when the first man landed on the moon. There have been many interesting TV shows about that event and I've learned a lot from them. I wasn't alive to experience that moment, so I can only imagine what it was like. I'm sure people were on the edge of their seats. I still can't wrap my head around how it was possible. If any of you were alive at the time of the moon landing and would like to share some memories of that day in the comments, I'd love to hear about it.

This is a photo I took of the last full moon, on July 16. I wanted to be sure and take a photo of the full moon that appeared closest to the date of the moon landing anniversary.

So, you guys know I like taking photos of the moon. I decided it would be a fun moon landing tribute if I shared a few of my favorite moon photos. These two are from July 15. Look at those clouds!

Amazing how much the sky can change overnight, hey?

These clouds look like they were drawn with charcoal. Anyone know what that little bright light is up to the left? I think it must be a planet since it looks too large to be a star.

This is July of 2018's Super Blood Full Moon. It's so incredibly bright and a little bit pink.

June of 2018's full moon silhouetted by a branch:

I like the way it looks like the branch is cradling the moon.

May 2018:

There were several great moon photographing opportunities in February 2017. This one looks almost iridescent.

The wicked cat's eye:

October 2017's full moon rising:

Another pic of the moon from October 2017:

Looking at this, I remember that was a hazy night. Those are phone lines you're seeing under the moon.

December 2016:

June 2016:

If you look closely, you can see that slight circle shape around the sliver.

I'll leave you guys with what looks like a classic harvest moon, even though this pic was taken in April of 2016. Wouldn't that have been a perfect Halloween moon?

It's amazing to me that I can, with a pretty normal camera, zoom this far to the moon. I look at these photos and think about someone actually standing there. Standing there and looking back here! 

Strawberry Moon and Miniature CSI

The past couple nights have presented me with a pretty great view of the sky. Last night's Strawberry Moon was beautiful:

I read that Jupiter could be seen by some people as a very bright little light near the moon. I didn't see any small extra lights, but I did think the moon itself was especially glowy.

I was out there a couple nights before last and got these very dramatic photos:

On the night I took these, it was pretty late and the wind was blowing at 20 mph. (I checked that online.) So it was exciting and fairly spooky to be out there. It was also only about 50° at that time. I could easily pretend it was an autumn night.

From a spooky sky to a spooky find, maybe some of you can help me with what I'm calling my "Miniature CSI" project. I found this little piece of evidence right on the surface of the soil while I was planting flowers.

Its other side:

As you can see, it was left clean.

And also as you can see, from this photo of it next to a quarter, this little piece of evidence is small.

So what do you guys think? I'm not even sure what part of the skeletal structure this came from, or whose skeletal structure it came from. It's hard to guess which creature this used to be a part of. I'm thinking based on its size, this was once part of a little bird or a rodent. Maybe part of its spine? We all have enough (fake) critter skeletons for Halloween. Maybe those could be a clue?

This experience at first gave me the feeling that I was working on a forensic investigation. Then, as I searched for more little bones, I felt like a paleontologist. I was hoping to find enough to piece together, well... something. I imagine this is what it feels like on a much larger scale for people as they find dinosaur bones. This might be a really small pterodactyl. ;) If you're wondering, no, I didn't find any more "evidence". This one little bone was just randomly there.

I'm interested to hear any of your thoughts on this! 

Super Blood Wolf Moon

How's that for a title? Pretty spooky stuff and quite a mouthful. Last night we had a Super Blood Wolf Moon. That's an eclipsed full moon that appears red (blood) and occurs in January (wolf). And I was lucky enough to see it! I didn't see it for long since it was 15° (Fahrenheit) out there and I got cold. It felt colder than 15°, maybe because we had a wind chill situation going on. My camera also gets cold and appears to take blurrier photos when it is. So I was hopping outside the door and back in pretty quickly!

It may have been freezing out there but it was a clear night, so I could clearly see what was going on in the sky. Over about an hour's time, the moon did visibly become shadowed and took on a red/blue/purple tint. I took a few photos, but this one is my favorite.

That photo isn't retouched whatsoever! Look at that purple and red. Amazing. I've never seen a moon quite like this and I can't expect to see one again until 2022. If you're on the Pacific coast of North or South America, you have the possibility of seeing one in 2021.

Here's another shot that I used less of a zoom on. In this one you can see that bright blue on top of the moon.

Isn't that cool? This wasn't one of those times where my camera made things look brighter than they were. If anything, these pics look slightly less bright red than what my eyes were seeing. The sky really gave me the feeling of being in a werewolf or vampire movie.

So did any of you get a look at last night's moon? If you took some photos, I'd love to see them! From the photos I've been seeing online, people in different areas saw the moon in slightly different colors. Either that or they had some fun with Photoshop. ;)

This GIF looks similar to what my eyes actually saw last night, as far as the intensity of red, not the fast movement. Although how wild/terrifying would it be to see an eclipse moving this fast in front of your eyes?

P.S. ~ I was curious to see if any astrologers had something to say about last night's moon. It seemed like a pretty big deal so I expected to find something. Well, I found this list of horoscopes and they're all good:

This Super Blood Full Wolf Moon Eclipse Kicks Off 2019 In the Best Way

Reading over this page, it sounds like the Super Blood Wolf Moon is bringing something positive for everyone. And this Wolf Moon is in Leo. So how's that for some powerful animal forces? A wolf and a lion. If you read that page, I'd be interested to know if your horoscope resonates with you. 

Say Hello to the Strawberry Moon

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been blogging or on social media at all, really. It's a busy time of year for me with gardening and a lot of cleaning/organizing. Anyway, I'm back with a quick post about tonight's full moon. This moon looks almost like a harvest moon, which is surprising for June.

June's full moon is known as the "Strawberry Moon" and will be the smallest moon of 2017. In fact, I saw some people referring to it as a "minimoon".

I like this photo, because it looks like the moon is wearing a little garland of leaves around its head. (That's a tree branch)

There are other names for June's full moon. I'm not sure why, but it's also called the "Oak Moon", "Cold Moon", and "Long Night's Moon". Those last two make no sense to me, because the nights aren't cold and long in June. Actually, I feel like I heard one of the full moons in the winter called a "Cold Moon".

If you're wondering why June's full moon is known commonly as the "Strawberry Moon" that's because Algonquin tribes knew this as a time to gather fruit. (That's according to the Farmer's Almanac.) The Almanac also lists this as the "Full Rose Moon" and "Honey Moon". Those names I can figure out. It seems this moon has lots of names, but then June is a time with lots of moon naming inspiration. The Farmer's Almanac page is worth reading:

The Mini Strawberry Moon

If you get a chance, it's worth looking in the sky tonight! The color of this full moon will give you a feeling of autumn a few months early.

Tonight's Super Bright Super Moon

Did you all get out and see the Super Moon? Tonight, the moon is the closest it has been to earth since 1948!

It was so bright, I actually had to look away from the camera as I took some of these pictures.

I was zooming way in. Something I've noticed about photographing Super Moons is that they give off a pink and purple glow on my camera's screen as I'm taking my pictures. That doesn't happen when I take photos of the regular moon. Unfortunately, the pink and purple doesn't show up in the pictures.

You can see a bit of the ring around the moon that I saw, though.

I like the way the tree branch appears to be holding up the moon in this one.

 

I took a photo using the flash and got this neat, orange glow. There's a bit of green there too for some reason.

It had been a bit cloud covered at first.

 

Last night, the moon was looking more gold and not just with the flash. It was that Harvest moon color.

Isn't that pretty?

The moon had started out as a sort of brightness behind the clouds. I stood out there watching it, camera in hand. In what felt like a thoughtful move from the moon, it rose up out of the clouds as I stood there.

Rising...

Interestingly, the branches in front of the moon look a little transparent. And if you magnify this photo, you might see this light greenish line curving over the top of the moon.

The moon won't be this close to us again until 2034!

If any of you took some pictures of tonight's Super Moon, I'd like to see them! It's possible that the moon looked a little different where you are.