Blood Moon

If there's one real advantage to jobs in the field of natural resources, it's all the wonderful early morning skies that you'll (be forced to) see. Yesterday's had the added bonus of a so-called "blood moon" eclipse, the second in a series of four supposed to conclude next year. Fortunately I was in rural Nicholas County at my second job as an environmental camp staff member; the city lights of my home base of Lexington are not conducive to astronomy.

The previous day had some weird weather. We were under an on-and-off tornado watch and huddled in the basements for our classes. Surrounding counties had building damage and heavy hail, but we were luckier and--although we were drenched and cold--thunderstorms was as bad as it got. The next morning I got up at 6am to a cold, clear morning with Orion shining brightly above the staff cabin and a big chunk already bitten out of the moon.

 

The copper-colored shadow spread so quickly that by the time I had retrieved my camera from the office, changed the batteries, and come to the realization that you have to remove the lens cap to take a picture, the eclipse was all but complete. By 6:40ish it was setting behind the treeline, still a garish red. Until April 2015, blood moon.