04Mar2007 "Lunar eclipse & full moon rise"

Jay announced at dinner on Friday night that the following night would be a full lunar eclipse—at 2am. So we set our alarm for 1:45AM, and before we could really think about it, we jumped out of bed, unlocked all the doors and gates and shuffled outside. We nearly got attacked by our ascari, who was startled to find anyone in the garden at that hour. The moon we full and directly overhead and the eclipse was nearly complete. We contemplated taking pictures, but our last star pictures were disappointing and we were too groggy to operate the camera…

Living by the ocean makes you much more aware of the cycles of the moon. The tides are at their most extreme when the moon is full and, when the moon is full, it rises just after sunset. We decided to take in the full moonrise over the ocean the next night, so we went down to the beach with a couple of beers, hummus and crackers, and our camera on a tripod. We brought Suki along just in case anyone might hassle us on the beach after dark. She passed the time patrolling the beach for the little crabs and chasing them back into their holes, in between retrieving various beach objects we threw into the surf.

We waited patiently as the sunset and the waited…and waited…past the time that we thought the moon would rise…but we waited just a little bit longer. We were rewarded with a spectacular lunar display. In the pictures, it’s hard to tell at times if it is a sunset or a moonrise…it was pretty beautiful.
We are lucky that we get to learn to use our new fancy camera in such an incredibly beautiful place – sometime we get frustrated because our full moonrise pictures over the Indian Ocean do not paint an accurate picture, and then we realize that we could be taking pictures of a fruit bowl in photography class…