The Lunar Eclipse December 21, 2010

Tri-pod - check, camera - check, batteries - check, warm clothes - check, alarm set - check! At 2:50a.m. I struggled to shut off the alarm and manage to dress for the lunar viewing. The mild air was most welcome. I'm used to dressing like the Pillsbury Dough Boy for most of my Northern celestial observing sessions.
The moon was near totality by the time I got outside. The reddish color made the moon look out of place.

I took this photo just after 3:00 a.m. It's a two second exposure taken with our Nikon Cool Pix camera.

There are also two stars to the lower right of the moon.

I missed a potentially great photo of a plane flying across the path of the moon. I've got to chalk it up to being out of practice, but I missed a great opportunity by not taking off the lens cover. I place the lens cover on the camera to prevent moisture from forming on the lens. Darn! At least I did get to see a Meteor streak across about 20' of space and break up, and that was well worth seeing.

In this last picture you can see that the Earth's direct shadow (umbra) is beginning to move off the moon's surface as the Earth and Moon's movement moves into the indirect shadow (penumbra).

I hope everyone who made the effort to see this celestial event got to witness this once in a lifetime show!