Lunacy on Black Ice

[Ann]

Midnight: 5° F (Wind Chill Effect: -10°F) and with treacherous sheets of black ice covering everything.

I don't know what possessed me to do it, but the clouds had cleared so I was outside and shooting the Blood Moon at intervals between some scurrying back indoors for hot Espresso and to get some feeling back into my frozen fingers.

The moon was almost completely overhead so there was no way to include interesting terrestrial features and my main concern was not losing my balance and slipping on the ice while craning my neck to shoot straight above my head.
Those who decided to stay indoors in the warm definitely did the right thing.


Semi-eclipsed:


Full Eclipse:



All shots were hand-held with the 300mm PF because the conditions were far too dangerous to be messing around with a tripod!
I used the TC 2.0 for the earlier ones but the full eclipse was very dim so I had to abandon the TC and shoot with very high 18,000 ISO for those ones.

Here is just one more in which the moon is about 80% obscured and which I shot between shooting the other two photographs. You can definitely see the face of the traditional "Man in the Moon" in this one!

[armando_m]

Ann, Very brave to try the shots in such conditions

maybe you have seen this thread about the eclipse ? http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,8325.new.html#new

[pluton]

Pretty good for hand held!
The third shot has the charm of the mid-20th century astronomical photos, which made up in mystery and stimulation of the imagination what they lacked in detail. 
And, yes...I see the face!

[Øivind Tøien]

Very well doing this handheld under difficult conditions, Ann.
The full eclipse (#2) image could go for an image of Mars, it fits with the blurriness!

[desmobob]

We had similar experiences, Ann.  It was 1*F here and windy.  I gave up on experimenting with using different lenses and TCs because of the biting cold.  Having to shoot almost straight overhead on ice and snow-covered ground made things even more uncomfortable.  I ended up with images pretty much indistinguishable from yours.  I was using the older AF 300mm f/4 EDIF and a Kenko TelePlus Pro 300 1.4x TC (which actually works exceptionally well with that lens) on my D750 after failing to get good images with the 2X version of the Kenko TC mounted.

I hope the weather is nicer in 2012 when we have the next event!

Stay sharp,
Bob

[gryphon1911]

Excellent shots Ann!   I was one of those too chicken to go out and try to get any of those moon shots. LOL

[Ann]

Thank you all for your most encouraging comments.

It was probably sheer lunacy being outside alone at midnight in those conditions with nobody around to know that I was out there if anything had gone wrong. It only occurred to me afterwards that it would have been a lot more sensible if I had slipped my phone into a pocket.

The freezing rain coated every surface with ice and daylight the next day revealed a landscape glittering like diamonds.





This Cardinal had puffed-up all of his feathers against the extreme cold (which continues!)