Lunar Blood Moon Eclipse, 3/14/25
As thoughts of transitioning to a different camera format and leaving film behind I actually made a checklist of Pros & Cons. Several things stood out on the pros list to make a change. #1, the transition to a smaller and lighter camera opened up new genres of photography resulting in new interests. #2, The mystery and challenge of a new learning curve was a real interest. #3, Traveling to far off places would now be a real possibility as age becomes a consideration. Lastly, and a gnawing unknown, was I using the friction of time and adverse weather to setup the view camera as an excuse not to pursue an image that formed in my mind’s eye. The transition from film to digital capture would again ignite the photographic spark and creativity I felt was waning…at least that is my hope and charge going forward.
This month’s image checks some of those boxes as the opening shot would take several hours during the middle of a cold and hopefully clear night. With the new PhotoPills app tracking astrological events and opportunities is now in my grasp. Later this year I will travel to Ireland and need to be completely comfortable with all things related to the Sony digital camera. Solar storms usually peak every 11 years, late 2024 thru the end of 2025 marks that peak. With a close friend making his 22nd visit to Ireland, a group of high school classmates affectionately known as Irish Eyes will rent a house in Malin Head, the northern tip of Ireland in the hopes of catching the Aurora Borealis during a moonless stretch of September later this year.
A total lunar eclipse occurred in the early morning hours back on March 14th. During a lunar eclipse, the moon transitions into the Earth’s shadow lasting for several hours given the huge shadow the earth casts on the smaller moon. Known as a “blood moon” because it takes on a reddish hue as sunlight is scattered through the Earth’s atmosphere, depicted in an illustration here.
Lunar Eclipse Alignment
Visible across North and South America beginning shortly after 1 am lasting till almost 5am. Full totality occuring from 2:26 – 3:31am here in New England. This event would be a perfect time to ramp up my experience and learning curve of astrological events. The weather is always an unknown, particularly during the change of seasons here in New England, March 13 – 14th was true to form.
With plans in place to photograph the Blood Moon from my deck the weather predicted would cause me to think about driving north. As I watched a real time weather app around 6pm my plan would change to heading up Interstate 91 to be free of cloud cover. I went to bed around 7pm with a wakeup of midnight. I planned to leave for the 90 minute drive north. I woke a bit before 10pm and checked the weather app which now showed cloud cover seemed to be moving towards central MA. To get out in front of the advancing cloud cover I decided to get up and leave ASAP and head as far north as needed. So, armed with 16oz. of coffee and chocolate energy bars my adventure began shortly after 10 pm. My idea was always for a composite image of the moon in differing stages. My skill set may one day progress to making the opening image in a single frame, but not at this point. To be clear, this month’s image is made up of individual images of the moon in varying stages. PhotoShop enabled these singular images to be placed separately into one image replicating the progression downward curve of the moon across the night sky. As the moon moves closer to the earth’s horizon the moon takes on a warmish color due to the reflected light from the moon’s surface passing through the earth’s atmosphere. The amount of moisture in the air has a real impact on the color and sharpness of the final image.
As drove north I would continually look to the sky in search of stars and a full moon, indicating clearing skies. Crossing into MA the Springfield ground lights clearly illuminated a layer of cloud cover. By the OxBow Marina the moon finally appeared exactly where I thought it would be, to my left and somewhat behind in the Southwest sky.
Astrospheric iPhone App
With a race against the clouds I realized there was potential for a Story Behind Every Photograph. So I began recording notes on the cell phone and took a screenshot of the cloud cover app showing my real time position and projected cloud cover. I thought the VT visitors center parking lot would be a safe area to stop and setup the camera with time to catch a partial eclipse prior to full totality. The fact I left home with less than a full tank of gas was now weighing on my mind.
Now around midnight at the VT visitor center the skies were still partially cloud covered, seen in the photo below. With more than 2 hours from full totality I figured to get as far north as possible on Interstate 91 in the hopes of beating the advancing cloud cover. As I have written about in the past our brain can shift from the Executive network to the Default network during times of mundane and most of all second nature activities, such showering or driving a car. Now driving north on Interstate 91 I began to piece together a more elaborate photo composite. Just 3 weeks earlier I had driven up to my photo friend’s house in the White Mountains of NH for wintertime imagery. I remembered a rest stop or scenic pull-off overlooking a valley on the northbound side of the highway. The valley as I remembered it was a typical VT town with a church steeple somewhere in a potential composition. Photographing from this overlook under a full moonlit sky could make for a memorable foreground. Adding the opening composite image in a dark sky by way of PhotoShop could make for a dramatic albeit conceptual rendering of the Blood Moon Lunar event.
VT Visitor Ctr Full Moon
Continuing north now past 1am and the gas tank below 1/4 I decided that gas was now a priority so I headed to the 24 hr. White River Jct truck stop to fill up. Arriving there about 1:20am and quickly filled up still hoping to find that scenic overlook area for a potential foreground composition. Many times an unexpected side bar presents itself to the Story Behind series. In a brightly lit gas station and eager to get back on the road a “large & portly” long snow white hair and bearded gentleman approaches me and says “hey, can you take a picture of me”…he goes onto say you’re from Connecticut (front license plate). He says, “Ya know, there’s an eclipse going on” ! Yes, what picture do you want...he hands me the smallest “flip” cell phone from the previous century and proceeds to get the partially eclipsed moon over his shoulder. With this cell phone the moon will looked like a speck in the sky. I offer no further conversation as I have a much more elaborate eclipse photo in mind, (LOL).
Back on the highway still hoping to find the scenic area, I decide to get off the exit for Bradford VT which is just about the 100 mile marker into VT. I pull into a NAPA auto parts store parking lot and jump out to set-up the camera, this attached photo is time stamped @ 1:48am with full totality beginning @ 2:21am and lasting just over an hour.
Bradford, VT NAPA Store
I was fully aware that the auto-focus system of the camera needed to be turned off and the moon manually focused. FYI, one might assume that a lens focus setting on “infinity” would be accurate, it is not, therefore careful focus had to happen on a still bright part of the moon to lock in pin sharp focus. So, remembering my Dad the sailor would always say, the moon is the fastest moving celestial body in the sky. This required always repositioning the camera’s angle of view, and a refocus. So, I quickly setup and focused on the brightest part of the partly covered moon and made the first exposure. Once a sequence of moon shots are recorded, I could continue my drive north in the hopes of finding the scenic overlook with moonlight illuminating the dark valley. The composite photo could be constructed once back in CT. Soon the moon was fully eclipsed and inexperience would now rear its head as I repositioned the tripod once again. The moon had entered into the totality phase and had darkened significantly, now a deep reddish color but near impossible to refocus. It’s now 3am, about 32 degrees, repeatedly removing my gloves (hand warmers inside) to try and refocus I would hang around another 20 minutes and likely 6 – 8 times to refocus on the Blood moon. My hands were freezing and I had done all I could to focus on the dark red Blood moon. Not knowing if I had actually achieved critical focus of the Blood moon in totality I still headed north in search of the scenic turnoff. Just north of Wells Rivers, about 20 minutes up the highway I found a safe turnoff where a few truck drivers had pulled in to sleep. The two images of the brighter descending moon and last image of the full moon would allowed for critical focus. This took another hour or so, now 3 hours from home I turned south without having found the scenic turnoff that I was certain was on the northbound side of I 91. Now about 5 am I pulled off the highway several times hoping to find an interesting foreground to photograph the quickly descending full moon on it’s way to a 7:14 moonset in the clear Vermont sky.
Checking my notes for this Story Behind, the last entry into my phone was…Crossed the VT / MA border about 7:30 am, within a few miles the skies were in thick cloud cover for the remainder of the day. All in all the trip was acquired experience for any future astro photography. A bit of closing irony, my White Mountain friends were here just a week or so ago and I shared the “Phantom” Scenic Overlook story…they knew the exact location I was in search of, “it’s just a few more miles North of your last stop” !