Week 11 | 36. Out of Focus

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As many of you already know, there was an amazing event that took place in the sky on 27/28th of September, 2015. The Super Blood Moon Eclipse! Yes – not only was it a “super moon” i.e. closest to the Earth (perigee), also a total lunar eclipse, known as a “blood moon”. The last time this happened was in 1982 and the next time this will happen is 2033. So, this was probably my only and last chance to photograph the thing. I had arranged to go to a friends house in Burkittsville, MD. Her parents own a farm relatively far from any light pollution. But as many of you know, when the night actually came around, not only was my friend sick, but it seemed like the entire East coast of the US was covered in clouds, thwarting our attempts to capture this photogenic phenomenon.

I had resigned myself to not seeing it and was sitting in the living room watching TV when I glanced out the window and lo-and-behold the clouds had parted and there it was… a big beautiful moon just barely starting its eclipse. I grabbed my camera and tripod and quickly set up on the deck. Ugh… it had gone again.. wait… I can just about see it, nope its gone again, wait… wait… wait… wait… wait… just a bit more… … YES! The clouds parted and there it was in all its splendor, now about half way covered with a deep red color. OK, focus on manual, turn the focus ring a smidge to the left… to the right…  to the left, click. A smidge to the left… to the right… click, click,  click, click, click. YES! No…. the clouds were starting to cover it again, noooo…

I picked everything up and looked at my tiny screen confident that I had got one good image. I downloaded them onto my computer and crap, you guessed it, they were all out of focus. Some more than others. This was the best of the bunch but still out of focus.