Night Photography

Something I’ve always loved since I was a kid is the night sky.  I bought a telescope with my own money when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old so that I could stare at the moon up close and hunt for planets and all that fun stuff.  Well, I found the moon, but not much else.  Either way, I still love to just stop and look up at the sky on a clear, crisp night.

I can’t remember what year it was, but I once witnessed a full solar eclipse.  For those who get it a little backwards, the solar eclipse is when the sun disappears behind the moon.  It was a spectacular sight!  I know I wasn’t supposed to actually look at the sun during the eclipse, but I couldn’t help it.  I got my sunglasses and looked anyway.  It was amazing to watch.

Something I’ve never stayed awake to watch is a lunar eclipse.  There is one coming up in February.  The night of the 20th to be exact.  Lots of information from NASA, including the exact times of the various stages of the eclipse, can be found here.  I haven’t gotten permission to post it yet, but a member of a forum I frequent wrote up a guide on how to photograph a lunar eclipse.  I plan to get outside that night and try to get some good shots of it.  Depending on how successful I am, I’ll post the results here when I finish putting it all together.