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.