Tenebrarum et Nebulae

Behold!  A couple photos of the Hyper-Sooper-Dooper Blueberry Fresh ‘n’ Fruity Moon Incarnadine, or whatever they called it.

Apparently we can’t just say “lunar eclipse” any more.

The first photo shows the crepuscular, fuliginous shadow of Terra, creeping rather like an octopus across the lunar surface.  (Also note that I just called it the “shadowy shadowy shadow,” but I did it in foreign languages so you wouldn’t notice.)

The second photo is the last moment of direct sunlight on the moon.

These are the two best of the fifty-odd photos I made last night.  Since I can’t do manual focus on my Hyper-Sooper-Dooper new Canon, I had to watch the autofocus desperately try to find something to grab onto, and then make the best guess, often going right past what would have been the correct setting to settle on something that produced a tenebrous, obnubilated blotch.  (Note I just wrote “blotchy blotchy blotch.”)  You’d think that if the camera flat couldn’t find anything to focus on, it would just set at “infinity,” but no, the camera’s much smarter than that.

Still, it actually found the right focus enough times so that I have a pretty good set of photos.  I discovered that the Canon worked best when I didn’t zoom right up to the moon, but left most of the photo dark.  Since, if actually printed, the photos would come out something like twenty feet long, I didn’t lose a lot by cropping out the dark bits.

And as for rebranding the event the Jumbo Cyclopean Monstrous Monumental Blue-Blood Event of the Millennium, I’m a bit puzzled.  Normally when you rebrand something or someone, you’re trying to make money.  “You don’t want that ol’ Gatorade, you want the new G, in Blue Lightning Flavor!”  Who makes money rebranding the moon?  It’s not even a New, Improved Moon, it’s still the same moon.