I usually do not publish two posts in a day. I also do not tend to get out of bed at 2AM. However, this opportunity was hard to pass by. This was the first of the three blood moons (lunar eclipses) we will have in 2025. It was perfect. It was still in March, so no mosquitoes. There were clear skies, and temperatures in the 50s at night. I prepared my old bridge camera and the tripod. I tested the settings on the moon as soon as it got above the horizon. Everything looked great, so I went to sleep.

Got several shots out of the real eclipse, but it was extremely frustrating. The L840 has a lazy autofocus and spends so much time hunting for focus in dark situations it seems like an eternity. What I completely underestimated in my preparations and testing was how dark the moon would actually get! I’m used to seeing solar eclipses, mostly partial ones. In those, the sun doesn’t look much darker for exposure than when it’s unobscured. I tested the moon shot in late evening with a fully lit and bright full moon. But, during the full eclipse, the moon was at least 3 stops darker, perhaps even more. After 20 minutes of trial and failure, I finally got the camera to focus. This was just when the eclipse started receding. You can see the top started getting lighter and losing the red hue.

In reality, the moon was much darker than the final photo. Surprisingly dark. Still a very cool thing to have seen.