New ZealandThe big celestial event of the start of this year was of course the super blood blue moon on January 31st. The day before my birthday. For those who haven’t heard about it, on January 31st, something really special happened. It was the second full moon of January (two full moons in the same months is quite special and called a blue moon). It was also a total moon eclipse (for those who were in the right places, we could only see part of it here). The eclipse gives the moon a red color (blood moon). And to be the cherry on the cake, it was a super moon (when the moon is close to the earth and looks bigger).
I was kind of sad because I asked a few of my friends if they would go with me but when they heard at what time it was, they all bailed on me! To be fair, in Montréal we could only see it partially and around 6AM. And of course, it is winter here in Canada, and it was going to be freezing cold.
Any how, I found a group of photographers in Montreal that was gonna go to Mount Royal in order to see it. Without thinking twice about it I went along. Well, I should have thought twice about it, especially when I didn’t really had warm enough clothes to bare the cold.
The problem in the situation was that the Moon was at the exact opposite as the Belvedere, meaning that we had to park the car down the hill in a parking lot and walk up in the snow / ice to another city point of view. I put the map below so you can see where it was exactly.
We walked up for about 15 minutes and it was fine because when you hike up, it keeps you warm. And then we arrived at the spot, starting to set up the tripods, for some they had lenses that looked like telescopes. By then, my hands were freezing even with the hand warmers. I had to take off my gloves in order to set up my camera properly. BAD IDEA. But no other choice.
I wanted to put on my ND filters but there was NO WAY that I could stand the cold on my hands for the time it would take to put them on. I think I need to train in order to put them as fast as I can for winter times. I am taking any advice about that by the way!
We stayed there for like two hours, freezing, walking down and up again while the celestial events were starting to happen. And then, it happened so fast. The moon started to turn red and disappear behind the Earth’s shadow and then disappeared at the horizon.
What a show! It was so beautiful. Totally worth the freezing cold and the two hours wait. I am glad I ended up seeing it, even if I didn’t have a good lense to take a picture of it. I have some pictures, but the best one is in my head.
Here are some shots my fellow photographers took that morning. Share yours in the comments if you managed to get some 🙂
Cheers,
Do.
More pics from Montréal:
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