Wildlife, landscape and weather photography
A very cool scene that unfolded last weekend. Low clouds were above and threatening to rain. On the horizon, clouds hung low beyond the foothills of the Colorado Front Range. In between, a thin band of blue sky that was punctuated by the setting moon. Even on a cruddy weather day, we get some pretty cool scenes here in Colorado.
Just a random picture of the moon I took this past weekend. The sun was up and warming things below following a pretty cool sunrise. Up above, our only natural satellite was ending its day and setting. Our brilliant blue skies provided a backdrop with some thin, cirrus clouds moving about. Kind of a neat scene.
I tried a number of different arrangements stitching together the images I took last night to show the progression of the eclipse. I think this is the one I like the best. It shows it all the way from the full moon before the eclipse started to when there was just a sliver and then to the blood moon.
As always, I find these types of events fun but sometimes frustrating because you only have one chance to get it right. The next lunar eclipse isn’t until 2021 so that is a long wait to try again.
Overall, I am pretty pleased with my results. I do wish I had more time to spend taking pics while it was in totality but I had to get my butt to bed so I could function at work today. 😉
Just a quick edit of one of my pics of the big celestial event last night as I had to get to bed and sleep before work today.
We were very lucky here in the Denver area in that while we had clouds much of the day yesterday, it cleared off quite nicely after dark. That gave us prime viewing for the so-called “Super Blood Wolf Moon” (or whatever the hype-masters called it). 😉
One of the things that struck me most about the event was that once totality was reached, the stars really brightened up and became quite visible. Here in the city, we don’t usually see so many except when there is a new moon.
I decided this is probably one of my favorite shots from the night as it offsets the moon and allows you to really see all the stars.
Skies have thankfully cleared here in the Denver, Colorado area so hoping for a nice show. I will stay up until totality but then will miss the last half as I have to go to work early tomorrow.
Technically the full moon this month was called the Full Cold Moon. However, as it set early in the morning Sunday, I happened across this scene. It seems fitting to post it now for Tatanka Thursday. 😉
The sun was just started to climb over the horizon and shed its golden light on the landscape and the creatures below. Above, a cloud layer but not low enough to obscuring the setting moon. In the background, the Rocky Mountains were waiting for their chance to see some sun.
Taken at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
A gorgeous waning gibbous moon recently. As I sat waiting for the sun to rise and light to spread so I could take pictures, I pointed my camera toward our only natural satellite. Those clear, Colorado skies provided prime viewing and a nice pic.
Today, NASA successfully landed its InSight probe on the red planet. That made me recall all the times this past summer when I was doing astrophotography and staring up at the Milky Way and a very bright, red ‘star’ – Mars.
Seen here in this image taken back in September, you can see InSight’s new home toward the bottom left corner. Of course from the probe’s point of view, we are little more than a bright blue dot in the sky. Kind of cool to think about.
A random capture from this past weekend in the Rocky Mountains. I was actually watching some nearby creatures when I looked around and saw the moon, crystal clear and looming above. I couldn’t resist swinging by tripod head around and snapping a few captures.
From last weekend’s trip to the Colorado high country. Taken on Friday night, I was pretty beat after working and driving but made myself leave the warm bed at camp and go out and capture a few images of the show after dark. Certainly, ideally, I would have gone far later at night but as is, the images didn’t come out too bad.
Here, you clearly see the center of our galaxy and as an added bonus, Mars (bright red, bottom left). Just below Mars, the lights from a plane is seen and if you look close toward the top right you see the faint light trail of a satellite.
