On A Cold Winter's Night...

OK, technically Winter hadn't started yet... but it sure felt that way. Winter was less the 24 hours away. And for the first time in 372 years the Cold Moon occurred on the Winter Solstice, passing through the earth's shadow for a total lunar eclipse.

Normally, a December night in Florida would be clear and mild. This year, we had a cold front pass by just two days ago. After 3 days of overcast, an unusual event in Florida when not associated with a tropical system, Monday turned clear and cold... for us. Monday night was going to be even colder.



When I was in college I had an attachment for my old Pentax K1000 that let me mount it on my old refractor telescope. I can remember sitting in the doorway of the garage in Massachusetts trying to stay out of the wind so the telescope would stay steady. It was winter then, too. Back then I only had 36 odd chances to get it right, and I didn't know if I did until about a week later, when my film came back from the developer. I got one shot right that year. I still have it.


A few years ago I bought an attachment for my new telescope, so that I could shoot pictures through it with my new camera, a Pentax K10D. A new generation of Pentax. Much to my chagrin, the attachment did not work all that well. My first try went fairly unsuccessfully as I tried to focus the camera through the telescope. Mounting the camera where the lens goes results in too long a focus, and as a result I have to disassemble most of the eyepiece holder just to get a configuration that will let me focus the light on the camera's image plane. The mount it self is only a tube. With no aperture controls, so I only have the shutter speed to control the amount of light.

Earlier in the week, I got the telescope out and started playing with the configuration. I wanted to see if I had missed something in the dark the last time I tried to shoot through it. I set up the scope in the living room and shot down the street. Once I figured out what I was doing, I took it out into the front yard. I had it working well enough that I felt I could at least try, provided the weather cooperated. At the time I wasn't sure it would. But Monday dawned clear and cold. The weather was going to be perfect. The only problem now... the eclipse didn't start until 1:30 am. If I did this, it was going to be a long night.

At about 9:00 that night I decided this was an opportunity I shouldn't miss. I got the scope out and set about configuring it. Then took it out got a few test shoots. The moon was full and bright. The show hadn't started yet. My plan was to set the scope up and leave it in the garage. The space right outside the side garage door was going to be perfect. By the time the eclipse started, the moon would be right over head, in the gap between the trees. I just had to remember to stay quiet as that put me literally three feet off my neighbor's bedroom window. I moved everything into the garage, the camera, the camera charger, and computer. I wanted to check pictures and things progressed. Then I locked everything up, and went to bed.

When the alarm went off an hour and a half later, it was already cold in the house. Edward was still sleeping, so I got up and headed out. By the time I got outside, the show had started. The moon was just entering the umbral shadow. The dragon had taken it's first bite. We were on our way.

It's easy to focus on the moon when it's big and bright. So I took lots of pictures, bracketing the shot solely by the shutter speed, so that I got the right exposure. Then I took the camera inside to look at what I got.

"Inside" was a relative term. The computer was set up in the garage on the work bench, only minimally warmer then out by the telescope. I could bring the camera in, download the pictures and have a look. I couldn't do that 30+ years ago. I knew right away I was getting good shots. I was psyched. I'd take 10 or 12 pictures, take the camera in, look at them, pick the best and post it to Flickr. Then post the link to Facebook. Then back out to the waiting telescope for more pictures.

As the moon got closer and closer to totality, my shutter speed got slower and slower. With the promise of an orange moon, it was going to get pretty slow. The good news was, there was no wind that night to shake the telescope, or feel even colder to me.

My telescope has a polar mount. That means you set it up with one axis parallel to the north star and you can track objects in the field of view with just one knob. Unfortunately, that knob is relatively close to the focus knob and just as the moon reached it's dimmest, I grabbed the wrong knob, and lost focus. That meant I spent the next hour of totality trying to find the right focus. I got close, but I don't think I got one that was really crisp. Chalk it up to a learning experience. Next time, get it focused, then tape down the knob so you can't mess it up.

I got Edward up at 3:00 am, right before the peak of the eclipse. He came out to join me for about an hour. The moon didn't pass through the very heart of the earth shadow, so there was a brighter side that seemed to rotate around the limb of the moon. Slowly at about ten minutes to 4:00 the moon began to peak out from the umbral shadow. Totality was over. The good news was I had something to focus on again.











I watched the end of the eclipse posting pictures as it continued. That's when I discovered just how many other people I know were also up watching the eclipse. Some across town, some across the country, a few on the other side of the world. Some I knew were going to be watching, others I didn't. As it turns out, a friend in Seattle couldn't see the show due to cloudy skies. So instead, he watched through me, and the pictures I posted. Then he posted my Flickr link for others of his friends to see.

I finally wrapped things up at about 5:20 am. The moon had slipped out of the umbral shadow, and only the keenest eyes could tell that the eclipse itself wasn't over. All the friends I'd seen on Facebook had fallen silent, probably smarter then I, having already headed off to bed. As for me, the cold finally caught up. It was around 43F and I'd been standing outside for the last 4 hours in my sneakers. I probably should have put on warmer shoes. It took until about 11:00 the next morning for me to finally feel like I'd shaken off the cold.


Was it worth it? Oh yeah. Got some great pictures, enjoyed posting them for others, and got to see an event that won't happen again until 2094. Sure there will be other total eclipses, and plenty more winter solstices. But not at the same time, at least in my lifetime. I'd do it again, too. Because to tell the truth, I didn't feel cold until toward the very end. I was too excited about watching the eclipse on our special holiday, the Winter Solstice, when a cold, dark winter's night marks the start of world's slow march toward warmth and light again.

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