Murphy at work. The night before and after the lunar eclipse showed clear skies. But clouds teased and built all day to mostly obscure the lunar eclipse above the western edge of the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.
I hadn’t taken the camper out since the July visit to the North Rim and Bryce Canyon. The old propane tanks couldn’t be re-certified, or legally filled any more. Two new 5-gallon horizontal tanks were installed Friday, $380 of ouch. They look pretty complete with gauges, though the old tanks worked fine. But gotta’ have propane for refrigeration, cooking, and heat when boondocking.
Awoke to a soft Yarnell sunrise on Saturday and waited for the chill to dissipate before final packing. Last in the cat.
That sea of white in the valley is 1000s of RVs
A relaxing two hour desert drive brought me into the overcrowded mess of first day of the Big Tent RV Show in Quartzsite. If I could have avoided any part of Quartzsite without 100s of miles’ detour I would have. Yet it only took me 15 minutes to get from I10 about three miles to SR95.
I didn’t notice less or more RVs parked on the always crowded BLM (Bureau of Land Management) long-term or short-term camping south of town. Made a stop where friends who’ve worked at Grand Canyon meet every winter. Over an hour of visiting later I continued on to Kofa.
Arrived under typical Arizona blue skies and found the ‘perfect’ camp along Palm Canyon Road. I wanted to see desert landscape and the mountains for moon rise photos. It’s not crowded although there were RVs which I’d like not to be in my landscape shots, or view for that matter, to be picky.
Played around with where I and PhotoPills thought the moon would come up in relation to some foreground and the horizon line of the Kofa Mountains.
I do love the Sonoran Desert, though this area is still pretty tame compared to further south.
With camera set on tripod pointing in basically the right direction I waited, and the moon rise caught me a little off guard. Not quite full, the moon rose in a pale blue sky before sunset. Notice the rise was further east than PhotoPills thought.
Without clouds to the west the sunset wasn’t overly exciting.
Hoping for no clouds for the next night’s lunar eclipse I wanted to photograph desert foreground with a line of moon shots above the mountains in the same composition. But the eclipse would start hours later than moon rise so even if clear would be out of even a vertical frame set at 50mm. Plus that would be a tiny looking moon. (200mm above and 24mm below) Hmmmm….
Can you see the moon?
I liked the camera location and view enough so marked it with some rocks and wood for the next night’s setup.
After reviewing the photos I decided horizontal and panorama might work shooting every 10 minutes with shutter adjustments. With barely enough signal to get online let alone post a photo from the laptop I called it an early night.
Dirty window view
Clouds offered a touch of color for Sunday’s sunrise.
And increased throughout the day.
Didn’t use this at all
I set up the camera and shot the moon peeking between the clouds every 10-15 minutes for the first half of the lunar eclipse. Sadly, my camera settings were way off and totally out of focus. The second half was solid clouds. I went to bed late and missed the morning moon set.
Wind blew all of Monday and I stayed inside reading.
Come evening it was clear enough to see the moon so snapped a few shots.
Tuesday I woke up chilled and achy. With the night predicted to drop near freezing and wind still rocking the camper I said no thanks. So I battened down and rolled out about 11:30am and was home by 2pm.
Welcome home in the kitchen sink
As I unpacked the camper, Sierra followed me back and forth seemingly not sure where she lived until her food and litter box were in the house.
Spent Wednesday catching up with life and trying to put together a composite/collage of what I kinda’ saw of the lunar eclipse. I don’t do Photoshop so this is the best I could do.
Orion
What I learned
Good idea to arrive at destination at least a day before event. Pay closer attention to the histogram because when it falls off the left–too dark–or the right–too bright–the settings are wrong. Don’t trust the LED screen for that. However, do use the LED viewer to check focus, repeatedly. I need way more practice in night photography. Photoshop should be on my list of things to learn. Wash the camper windows. Continue to practice with Sierra on her leash. And keep on having fun.
Linking to Skywatch Friday
I’m hoping to leave Friday. But honestly, sitting home today in front of a heater, watching pouring rain and enlarging puddles with a forecast predicting cloudy skies for Sunday, makes it difficult to get excited about this idea to go anywhere but home to shoot the moon.
