I felt like I hit the trifecta last night/this morning. I went out to get some shots of the blood moon, set up a bit early to get my camera settings right and then took a few shots. My understanding was that it was to be at the peak stage of the eclipse around three. So I was ready. I looked behind me and was surprised to see the aurora to the north-east. The predictions I had checked earlier in the day were low. I had two cameras but only one tripod. From past experience, I knew that the aurora often faded out by three a.m. and I really wanted to get some of those shots as they were over the City of Seward. I impatiently waited for three o’clock to come around, quickly took some final shots of the moon and then threw my other camera with a wide angle lens on the tripod which I had set up in the meantime. About that time, two more things happened. On my second shot of the aurora, my camera said “CARD FULL”! I had a spare with me and slapped it in. But also at the peak of the eclipse, I noticed the Milky Way high in the western sky. How cool is that? So I grabbed a few shots of that too. Once the moon started brightening up, I noticed my shadow and also noticed that the Milky Way could no longer be seen in the bright moon light. I couldn’t help but think of Benny Benson while taking the northern lights shots with the Big Dipper (the Great Bear constellation) over the City of Seward. After all, I was just up the road a piece looking at where he spent his younger years. Benny was an Aleut who designed the flag in a contest for the state of Alaska in 1927 (then still a territory). The contest was only open to seventh to twelfth graders and there were hundreds of entries. Benny was 13 at the time and lived in an orphanage in Seward after his mom died when he was only three. His design was the Big Dipper and the North Star on a “field of blue”. In this photo, the dipper’s handle reaches down toward the City. The North Star itself is higher in the sky, not in the photo. After done taking photos early this morning, I went to bed quite cold, but singing to myself the Alaska Flag Song. “Eight stars of gold on a field of blue, Alaskas flag, may it mean to you, The blue of the sea, the evening sky, The mountain lakes and the flowers nearby, The gold of the early sourdoughs dreams, The precious gold of the hills and streams, The brilliant stars in the northern sky, The Bear, the Dipper, and shining high, The great North Star with its steady light, Oer land and sea a beacon bright, Alaskas flag to Alaskans dear, The simple flag of a last frontier.”
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 04:42:06 +0000
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