Last night, there was a blood moon.  In other words, a total eclipse of the moon.  It should have been visible from here.  I was ready, and my camera was ready too.

Results were mixed.  I did, however, learn a few important lessons.

The first lesson was, never try to capture an image of the moon by shooting through a window.

This first shot was a test.  The double glass left some artifacts around the brilliant full moon.  Also,  to shoot this wide, I need to manually control aperture and shutter settings.

As the eclipse started, it was time to capture the next image.  I did this while standing in an open door.

Second lesson was, don’t hand-hold a tight shot of the moon.

Not too bad, perhaps.  I did brace against the door frame.  Yet, it could have been better.

The third lesson was, atmospheric conditions can spoil your chances.

I had setup the tripod and was going to capture that “perfect” image of the blood moon.  It never happened.  Dark clouds were rolling in, obscuring the moon.  After much waiting, I managed to capture the above image, which was only partially cloud shaded.  After that I only caught brief glimpses of bits of the moon.  And then it could no longer be seen from here.

Sic transit gloria.