LUNAR ECLIPSE - DECEMBER 10, 2011

I don't really enjoy getting up early, but once I'm up, I enjoy the early morning immensely. Having gotten used to getting up at 5 AM to take the dog on his first potty walk, it wasn't much of a stretch to get up at 3:45 am to get ready to go our and watch the last lunar eclipse until 2014. I tend to get excited about astronomical events and this one had me really excited.

After showering and making a thermos of hot tea, loaded my camera and tripod, and headed for the beach. Since totality would not be visible from my neighborhood (due to hills), I knew the perfect spot to watch from.

It was beautiful at the ocean; the sky was inky blue-black and the sound of the crashing surf added a nice soundtrack. By the time I got there at 4:35, the shadow was just taking a small nip out of the top of the full moon.

For the next two hours, me and about a half-dozen other adventurous souls watched one of nature's splendors play out.

By 6:30 dawn was just starting in the east behind us and there was a lot of haze on the horizon, so the moon just kind of faded into it and disappeared from view.

During the earlier part of the eclipse I saw two meteors falling and a satellite cruising overhead. It was a 'stellar' morning!