This early morning’s lunar eclipse sure enough featured the “blood moon” phase of totality, as seen above from Spring Creek Basin over Disappointment Valley in southwestern Colorado.
It.
Was.
COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leaving the shadow.
What an amazing experience to see the moon go from full brightness to pretty dark (OK, that might also have been the clouds during the full first half of totality) back to super bright just before it set over the southwestern ridgeline of Disappointment Valley.
I hope ya’ll saw it. If not, allow the anticipation to build before the next one, around New Year’s Eve/Day (?) in 2028/2029! 🙂
Merlin (the app) tells me this is, in fact, a mountain bluebird. I know it looks green. Pretty sure it’s not the camera/lens/white balance/color cast because it looked green in person!
That big white disc behind it is the MOON!
I got kinda skunked again trying to photograph it rising because of thin clouds that were just enough to block/blend the moon as it rose behind the eastern(ish) ridges. When I got back to my buggy from a fairly long walk into Spring Creek Basin looking for the *right* place to stand and shoot (spoiler: I didn’t actually find it), this beautiful fellow flew in to check me out from the utility wire right above me and the road. How sweet! How did it know I needed a pick-me-up? 🙂 These bright blue flashes of gorgeousity are everywhere right now. … I’m not sure whether they’re early … or right on time. The temp hit 68 insane degrees yesterday.
He gave me enough time to unpack my camera from my bag, fiddle faddle around and change some settings from moon-shooting … and of course, he posed like the gorgeous creature he is (see top pic) … before he flew off. I got this pic (above), and then everything else was a green blur (pretty sure that’s a superhero character: “The Green Blur”).
It was warm. It was beautiful. There are still some damp patches from the melting snow that fell (and stuck briefly) Friday. The mustangs were peaceful throughout Spring Creek Basin (Buckeye above). … It should NOT be 65 degrees in February in Colorado.
Randomly, the moon was nearly straight overhead while I was out with Buckeye’s band, so I took my camera off the monopod and aimed straight up and clicked off several shots, not expecting much. But they turned out super crisply sharp, so I’m including the very first one I snapped. How cool is the moon? Just in case you’re interested in such things, depending on where you are (it’ll be visible across North America), there’s a lunar eclipse coming early in the morning of March 3, as the full worm moon is setting!
As I was wandering the desert (seriously), hoping that tonight (which was last night) would be the night the clouds would part and I would get to see the moon rise … the clouds DID part, and a rainbow DID shine! I ask you: How does that happen!?!? 🙂 I’m not complaining, mind you, but Mother Nature is a wondrous, mysterious creature.
And then, this:
My desert wandering paid off!
If I ever get those glorious scenes with a gorgeous mustang right in my foreground, I’m going to keel right over without being able to hit the shutter even once, probably. 😉
This was the last night to get the moon rising with the sun only very recently set. When the moon is actually full on Sunday (happy lunar eclipse if you’re on the other side of our world from North America!), it’ll be rising in a dark sky.
But last night, as I walked away (OK, I might have been doing as much of an Olympic race-walk as I possibly could with a camera pack on my back, binoculars in the case on my front and carrying a monopod that really is not a hiking stick), THIS was hustling me along (and yes, there was lightning):
See the moon rising above Temple Butte and McKenna Peak and submarine ridge at lower right?
Conclusion: Sometimes the rainbows come and go well before the post-sunset rain. 🙂 (And I think the valley got fairly widespread (though light) rain!)
Rain – or perhaps more likely, virga – catching the western light over the southern ridge of Disappointment Valley from about mid(ish)-Spring Creek Basin. None of that for us yesterday, but we have chances today and Saturday.
How often do you get the rising moon and a rainbow (and not a moonbow!) in the same image? I actually don’t know, but both are visible in this pic … though both are extremely faint and hard to see. The rainbow is nearly impossible to see – at the right side of the pic, nearly vertical – and it was suuuuuuuper faint in reality, too. But as I was nearly stumped (again!) by clouds to see the moonrise, I shot it anyway. 🙂
But the MOST crazy pic of last night:
I’d love to say I planned the above image … but I didn’t! I was taking pix of the moon, high in the sky, between cloud layers (! can’t we have some rain, please, with those clouds??), and the plane photobombed my moon!!!! HA! The dark streak behind it is its contrail. I’m astounded that the moon is as sharp as it is because I’d only aimed and started hitting the shutter when the plane zoomed by.
The world is a wondrous place. 🙂 Especially with mustangs … not pictured, but always there.
It’s not my intention to ignore all the ills of the world on this blog, just to make it a place of peace and beauty.
Two nights ago, clouds stymied my moonrise photography attempts, but Mother Nature put on a show, nonetheless. You can’t really call that a rainbow – a light prism? – over Brumley Point, but it was a much better sight than the image I took the day before that looked like Brumley, which looks enough like an old volcano, was actually erupting.
This was the second time it happened (and I was in a bit different location). Neither occurrence lasted more than a minute or two?
Do dragonflies bring you joy? It’s way out of focus here near the in-focus pinon tree – in my defense, I was pretty far away, and it was zipping faster than I could follow, let alone focus – but that little beam of zooming light (seeing it backlit against a far mesa is what caught my attention in the first place) brought ME joy! I realized that it was snatching flying insects out of the air, which I cheered wholeheartedly. The gnats are largely gone, but we have (still) big flies and (now) these weird little things that are bigger than gnats and almost as exasperating.
The moon did rise above the clouds eventually, of course. No matter the conditions here on Earth, it’s always, comfortingly, there – somewhere out there.
Most importantly, to paraphrase Mad-Eye Moody (apologies to non-Harry Potter fans): Stay vigilant!
This handsome fellow is not the same handsome fellow from a couple of posts ago. He was near a small water source, and I happened upon him as he was walking away. Above, I *think* his attention was caught by a small band of mustangs away south and lower. He ended up turning all the way around to look at them, then watched them intently for several minutes before returning to his path away to nibble and browse.
A couple of hours later, this. 🙂
Hot, hot, hot. The temp hit 100 degrees in Spring Creek Basin yesterday. It’s not unusual as a summertime temp … but it’s still awfully miserable. There was some relief in the form of sunshine-blocking clouds, but not a drop of moisture did they produce.
By the time the moon rose, it was actually pleasant (if you don’t mention the gnats), and some little bird was singing its little heart out with a full medley of melody. I don’t know what it was, but it was a lovely serenade! 🙂
In the basin the night before last, I realized I might be able to catch the moon rising from the space between McKenna Peak and Temple Butte if I could get myself into the right position in Spring Creek Basin.
I didn’t, but it was still cool (as it always is?!) to watch the almost-full “Buck Moon” rising in the very warm (the mercury hit at least 98F) July sky last night over the basin.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 