Tunglmyrkvi

When the Moon was almost orange on 21st of December 2010.

It was cold... terribly cold. I got this great idea (or was it bad idea) yesterday. I should take some photos of the Lunar Eclipse since I'm unemployed at the moment so I have all the time in the world.

I read the main shadow would start making The Moon dark at 6:30 in the morning so I had to wake up very early. I went to sleep shortly after 10 o'clock and I woke up at 5AM. I made hot water for Swizs Miss chocolate drink since I knew it would be very cold. I had some worries about the long waiting time for the eclipse to finish so I took some wool with me so I could just do some knitting while waiting. I went off from my home at 6 AM and I had to stop and return home again after just 200m drive since I both forgot my down jacket (absolute must because of the cold weather) and my forehead light (also a must because of the darkness).

I drove outside of Reykjavik the road toward Krisuvik. I was almost to late because the eclipse was starting when I stopped the car on a place I thought would be preferable for my astronomical observation. In the beginning it was preferable but after one hour or so a couple of strong lights appeared not far a way and was in a nearby mine I had forgot. Well, the lights were in opposite direction from The Moon so it was not a total catastrophe.

I put my camera with my longest lens on the tripod. 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter so I had 420mm telescope lens. When the shadow appeared on the moon I also put my Celestron astronomical telescope in use and unfortunately the cold began to bite my hands, my feet and my face and finally my body. I was drinking my hot cocoa but nevertheless I was colder and colder. Finally I decided to have the engine running and also in dawn the temperature rose for couple of Celsius degrees I think. I did finsh the photography project but it was far to cold to do any knitting! My hands were freezing most of the time. I also was more busy doing the photography work than I had expected.

I just hope I can do something of the photos but the photo above is just one of them. I do not regret doing this and I'm pretty sure I would be devastated if I had not gone. In that case I would be thinking of all the wonderful photos I did not take!

In all I was watching The Moon (and also The Venus) for more than three and a half hour so it was quite a job I did there.

About Venus, I think I saw it was not full as the moon. It was about half at that time. I could clearly see that in my astronomical telescope.

Below is one photo that shows how the moon was disappearing during the Eclipse.

WARNING: This blog entry could be rather boring for people to read but I think someone could like the photo

The beard of my uncle Ásgeir

I very seldom meet my family, that is the relatives of my parents but that happened last Thursday at my parents home. There have always to be a reason for people to meet each other - at least in my family. The reason this time was that one of few cousins in my father's family was in Iceland. She lives in Denmark and has been there for many years and when she is in Iceland there you could say you had a reason for a party or what you call it.

My father's siblings were there almost all. That is his two sisters living in Reykjavik and his brother with the great beard. Funny when people around 80 years old start to change their appearance as my uncle Ásgeir did. Two of them are in good condition but not one of the sisters that has got Alzheimer disease. It was strange and sad when she thought she had never been at my parents home before and also had to ask where her own daughter was living. This disease is in the gens of the family but only females have got it as far as i know so I'm perhaps safe but not all my relatives. I just hope for a remedy before too late.

I had my camera with me and wanted to take photos of the family, since I never know when I'm meeting them all for the last time. I were just able to take a few photos of the beard of my uncle and even fewer of my aunts when some people started to argue over my photography. I just hate that kind of an attitude. I was perhaps taking the last photos I could take of this people and people were just complaining and criticising me as some paparazzi!

My two aunts and my cousin