I gazed up at the full moon early in the evening of Dec. 20th only to see it obscured by a rapidly moving stream of clouds which cast a bright glow upon the ethereal mist. As I watched the Moon was obscured leaving but a dark grey haze; my only recourse, to watch the lunar eclipse live upon the Internet.
I went inside and did a Google search to discover a number of live feeds broadcasting this rare event; one feed was from NASA's Marshell Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, which produced a spectacular front row seat viewing of the first half of the lunar eclipse until rain set in, causing the scientists to bring their camera inside. However, I quickly found another live feed from Buffalo, New York, which enabled me to extend my viewing of this most ominous event through the wee hours of the early morning.
After sunrise, I discovered even more spectacular recordings of the lunar eclipse made by amateur astronomers and photographers around the country. There were views of the rustic, blood-red moon capped with a sparkling white crown taken against the Washington Monument. Others had captured spectacular sequences of the Moon arching high above, gradually being filled by the earth's shadow to produce a ruby red jewel glowing in the night sky. Still others had captured the eclipsed Moon against church steeples, skyscrapers, and skylines. It was thus through the marvelous magic of the Internet's superhighway that I was able to hopscotch around the nation and see the lunar eclipse from the best observation points, a truly marvelous way to experience this most rare astronomical event.
Pressing PrtScn, I captured a number of the best lunar eclipse images from my own computer's monitor which are show below.
Three Moons Dec. 21, 2010
Moon arching through the sky Dec. 21, 2010
Jesus Christ and the ominous Moon Dec. 21, 2010
Total Lunar Eclipse Dec. 21, 2010
Lunar eclipse at the Washington Monument Dec. 21, 2010
Phases of the Lunar eclipse Dec. 21, 2010
Does my screen capture of these images which were then enhanced to improve upon their aesthetic quality and presentation mean that I am the photographer? Hardly, I'm but the one who picked out these spectacular images to pass along to posterity. I make no claim to anything but having exercised my finger tips to hit the PrtScn key; God only knows who went out into the cold of night to actually set up their cameras and telescopes to get the original images. I was not able to determine who took most of these lunar eclipse photographs because credits were not accurately stated upon on-line sites broadcasting the images. If anyone recognizes an image which they should receive due credit for, please let me know via email reply.
