The Light is Still There

Tonight was the lunar eclipse of the Super Moon. 

I was determined to see if I could capture a picture of it with my camera. We had a tripod, and I used a zoom lens. Thus far, I had not been successful taking night pictures. But, it was the Super Moon, I thought maybe it's enlarged brilliance would make it easier to capture something in the dark. 

We watched from our driveway as the full, white moon began to darken with the Earth's shadow. There seemed to be a lot of ambient light, so we threw the equipment in the car and drove to the field of our small, local airport. 

That's when things seemed to turn a bit magical.

As we drove down our street, people were standing on their porches, some in their pjs and some had set up lawn chairs in the street, all heads turned to and illuminated by the moon's light. 

We got to the field and set the tripod up, using a headlamps. I set the timer for a time-lapse exposure. This was the first time I had used it. 

The stars were bright, the night clear of clouds. It got cold as the eclipse shadow grew across the face of the moon. But, just before it was completely in shadow, the darker parts began to take on an orange glow. That glow of the sun's rays slipping around the edges of our atmosphere was all the proof we needed, that there is always a light, somewhere.

As the Earth aligned in the direct path between sun and moon, in that night field, on the edge of this continent, we took comfort in knowing that nothing could completely extinguish the light of our great star. 

As I said, magical.