Photos of the Lunar Eclipse

Posted on Thursday 21 February 2008 at 01:29

Last night was crisp, clear, the stars standing out of the bright sky. There is such a thing as a bright darkness; just combine a full moon with miles upon miles of ice-coated snow.

We watched the earth’s shadow drift across the pale moon. I tried taking some digital photos of it over the course of the evening. None are wonderful, but the event is documented for posterity. We got out the telescope and tried to see Saturn, a golden speck to the left of the shadowed satellite of Earth. I had hoped to see the rings. However, we never did quite get it all sorted out before the brilliant white sliver began crossing back onto the moon’s face. But we did look at some lunar craters.

By the time the light returned to the moon, it had moved farther south in our sky, and its position was changed relative to the earth's movement. Although the earth's shadow came across it from left to right, the moon "reappeared" starting at its bottom edge.

Click here for a large composite image of the eclipse phases we recorded on camera.

Here is another homeschooler who got some good shots of the moon in shadow.

The Skies of July and August

Posted on Saturday 19 August 2006 at 09:29

First, let me share with you a blaze of light and clouds from a couple of weeks ago. Then the red rain we saw last weekend. (I didn't forget, Darcy, I promise!) It was taken out near the Acre Garden, our patch for next year's TYDOS. The water body is the West Pond right alongside where I can't wait to be gardening.

Prairie Light and Wind

Posted on Tuesday 15 August 2006 at 03:14

Well, with all the pickling kerfuffle, I'm just pooched. I want to take some time to just share with you the place where I live - something I haven't taken time to soak up lately.

We were away for a wedding on the weekend, and came home to find we'd gotten fully an inch of rain. Suddenly, the year seemed beautiful. The sunflowers, so dry they'd cracked the ground in their desperate suctioning, towered to twelve feet, opening victory blooms to celebrate the bit of renewal given them. The corn began to fill.

Late Sunday night, as the pickling was beginning, Dave and I ran outside under threatening clouds and darkness. We hurried over the lane's small hill to gather dill-heads. The cloud above broke open, and we hid among our garden giants, their yellow blooms smiling down at us.

How many skies I've missed sharing with you in all my summer rushing! Let's do that for the next week. In fact, I'm opening up a special photo category for my skies. I have things dating back to the end of June I want to show you.

On June 30th, we saw tornadoes touch down just north of Brandon. One was very near to the road we'd taken into the city just a few minutes before. It was a wild, wild day. People were wading up to their knees in the Superstore parking lot, and the streets were generally swamped.

But the evening had its own, better kind of magic. We stood beneath fire in the last sky of the day.

On July 20th, we were treated to more fire as dark giants tracked across the evening sky:

And, just wait till I get the red rain uploaded. I've never seen anything quite like it....

My Skies, Day 5

Posted on Monday 17 July 2006 at 05:11

The Prairie sky from July 12th. You can see the band of rain coming down as the storm passes over. We've had such heat that there've been a number of thunderbursts. However, this one, like most of the others, gave a spattering at most and passed on.

My Skies, Day 4

Posted on Wednesday 5 July 2006 at 05:23

Since I didn't share my skies on here yesterday, here's the view from last Friday evening.