Super Moon Eclipse from north Goa 31.1.18

A Lunar eclipse

So it's the last day of January and were in Vagator, north Goa. By about 3pm the temperature tops out around 37 degrees and there's hardly any breeze, so we can't sit out for long. But this evening is an event that last happened 150 years ago!

Picture taken due west at 18:30 (IST or +05:30 hrs GMT)

But by 6pm it's cool enough for us to climb to the highest point and watch the sunset over the ocean on this special evening. 
With a 400mm zoom lens, this is a picture of the sun taken around 18:30 or less than ten minutes before sunset. The colour changes are caused by the amount of low level polution running off shore across the Arabian sea to the horizon. 

Picture taken due west at 18:40

So although the sun hasn't dropped below the horizon, due to the polution, the sea and the sky merge into this man made industrial soup. 

Picture taken due east at 19:40 

But today is special as its not just a day when the moon gets closest to Earth, making it a "super moon". But it's also a night when the Earth get's between the Sun and the Moon and causes a "lunar eclipse". 
The reason for the blurred image is due to my set up with the camera. Without a tripod, I resorted to propping the camera on a rock, although the cause for the blur was due to the low light levels and an exposure time of forty seconds. So lowest part is the start point of the moons ascendancy to its last sight when the lens shut.... whoops

Picture taken due east at 20:10

The next shot was a half an hour later when the moon started to whiten as the sun came back around the earth and started to illuminate the moon from the south / or underside of the Earth.

 Picture taken due east at 20:40

By this time the moon was illuminated enough for me to take ths picture in just an eighth of a second. So there is no tracking blur.

 The Earth has two moons

These last two pix were taken around 20:40, due to the optics within the zoom lens, the huge distance between the lens and the moon and my inability to set the camera directly at the moon. It has caused refraction, or an optical illusion showing a second moon. So we haven't added another moon, we just added the pix coz they just look a bit funky : )


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