
What a beautiful way to spend a night, watching one of the most spectacular alignments of sun, earth and moon in years. Also one of the longest deep eclipses in a over a decade, (and 3rd longest since 1000BC) with the totality part of the eclipse (moon totally covered in shadow) lasting more than 100 minutes. The eclipse started at 1.25am (Perth time), and finished at dawn (around 7.15). Mind you I went to bed at 5.15am, just after the totality phase had finished and the clouds rolled in, obscuring everything.

A deep eclipse often bathes the moon in a coppery colour, as the earth’s shadow falls across the face of the moon, and light from the sun bends around the atmosphere during totality. This eclipse had the added ingredient of volcanic ash cloud in our skies which gave it a distinctly orange glow.
I apologise for the wobbliness of the photos. A cold front was blowing in from the west, and as I’m on the coast my tripod and I were buffetted by strong winds. I tried stabilising it with Jeff’s heavy weights, shielding the camera with my body, all to no avail. I’m glad no one heard me at 4am cursing the elements and metal weights crashing onto my toes!
The full moon rose as usual. Here she is in full glory at 1am.

Cloud started to roll in after 1.30am and I was gutted. The clouds are evident in this next shot. I was hoping I wouldn’t be up all night for nothing.

From 2.30am to 3am nothing but cloud. I went to bed. At 3.50am I jumped up and outside – what a beautiful sight – the Man in the Moon.

I remember when I was little drawing crescent shaped moons with a smiling face just like this image above.
With no shoes or jacket on, I set up the tripod in the howling wind, trying to be very very quiet. No matter what I did I couldn’t get crisp clean images. I decided to name the following photos for their moving star patterns:

“Written in the Stars”

“Nike Stars”

“Star Bats”

“Star Calligraphy”
Just as totality was about over, deep waves of clouds and spitting rain moved in. I took my last shot of the moon covered with cloud before I went cold, but very happy, back to bed.
