On June 15, 2011 was the longest, brightest total lunar eclipse of the century. "Of the century." What once held special meaning to me is now a taunting phrase; a big, whiney AHH HAA.
Before I start, I should say that my first sign of failure was the abnormal heat and humidity, in comparision of the previous 2 weeks.
I told the guard to cut the electricity to eliminate all external light sources from interfering with my shots. I managed to build a stable "tripod" for my camera out of a stool, and books--it was actually pretty decent.
Pitch black all around me, I look through the view finder to find the moon. Found. I focus, or do what I think is focusing, and take the shot. Not focused. Refocus, try again, take the shot, fail. This cycle continued on for about a half an hour but I was content because the moon wasn't going anywhere and the electricity was cut. I got to play around with a few of the camera settings and test out different strategies.
Then, horror. The electricity was turned back on by the power company. Imagine: the workstation power cut and everyone house around with electricity has it's lights turned on. The effect was awful fluorescent light cast across the workstation courtyard. This made focusing even harder because my eyes had to adjust and readjust to the darkness of the viewfinder everytime I took them away from it.
I never did successfully focus the lens. Trying to look through the view finder at black sky with a dimly lit moon in pitch black is just beyond me. So is the more irritating circumstance of trying to take a picture in darkness with cast lights all around.
Point of irony: in western, undeveloped Africa, while taking a picture of the night sky, electricity was my ultimate undoing. My biggest enemy. My arch nemesis. Would it not be for the Wii gaming system waiting for me or for guitar hero (or Robert), I would be bold enough to publicly denounce the use of electricity. But alas, I love The New Super Mario World for Wii too much.
These photos are of the full eclipse and then the un-eclipsing of the moon. They are the best I could do. They aren't great but I think another eclipse like this will happen in 18 years. Hopefully it's viewable from North America :)
Next assignment: Lightning.
