Lunar Eclipse ,December,21st,2010.Big Bay Point,Innisfil.

On this special event of the moon, my son Jeff & I decided to try to take pictures of the lunar eclipse. We headed out at 1:30 am. It was so bright it was like somebody turned on the lights outside. More like the sun instead of the moon. It was amazing. It was also cold. But looking up at the night sky lit better than ever was all worth while. While awaiting this special event to start taking place we counted the constellations and looked at all the stars. I have never seen the night sky quite so clearly before. I saw a meteor fly by and it was so quiet we could here the lake and it's gentile whooshing on the shores. What a magnificent night it was. Then it started right on time. A little slit was appearing. The moon was so bright you couldn't make any of the creators out. Just pure white and so bright it almost hurt your eyes. Therefore looking at it for any length of time was out of the question. The filter on my lens helped a little. The man in the moon was no where to be seen, from here anyways. It was brilliant. I started shooting. I took shots until 3:10 and then had to go inside. I was so tired and cold by then. My camera was starting to complain of the cold as well. So although I missed some of the eclipse I saw the moon go a vibrant deep red color ( the moment we had been waiting for) and it was the most beautiful thing ever. Amazing. I was not sure the camera had picked this up but in fact when I got the shots on the computer they were not bad at all. I had the camera cranked almost straight up at about 6 feet to try to help my posture taking pictures on the tripod, and used my 500 zoom to get the best view with the remote to eliminate any movement. It worked pretty good. The night was eerie at the same time it was beautiful. The wind would come and go as the moon changed and the trees were creaking in the breezes and so cold. You felt like there was another presence other than your own out there. It was so quiet,no coyotes howling ,no owls hooting, just the trees moaning and the winds gently whistling through them. It got darker as the moon was engulfed and it was a wee bit spooky out there. I would of loved to stay out there and get the whole thing but I just couldn't do it with the cold and being as tired as I was with all the running around of the Christmas season. But I am happy with what I got. And I thought for those of you who were snug in your warm beds fast asleep with only 5 sleeps until Christmas that you may want to check out what you missed. Enjoy. I welcome any comments.