Eclipse

For those of you who might have missed it last night, here is what the eclipse of the moon looked like over Victoria. I took this photo down on Dallas Road overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca and there were thousands of people out to see the moon.

Lunar Eclipse

Once again while the rest of you were submerged in swinish slumber the Victoria Daily Photo photographers were out in the frosty pre-dawn to capture the latest celestial event, this morning's total lunar eclipse. Why is the moon red? When it passes behind the earth it is still lit by refracted sunlight which turns it red. An hour later (below) it had begun to regain its normal pearly brightness.

Solstice

Talk about a mixed bag! I went out last night to try to capture some Christmassy house decorations. There were some nice life-size plastic carollers nearby but when I arrived there I found the high winds had blown them all over so they looked like they'd been drinking too much. Inside the house however, my daughter and I began playing with some of the lenses I've accumulated over the last few years. This picture was taken (by my daughter) with a filter called "Multi-vision." I like the effect and it's a pretty picture to mark what for me is an important day - the winter solstice. Today is the shortest day of the year with little more than 8 hours of daylight here in Victoria. From now on, however, the days begin to lengthen and that means we're on the downhill slope to summer, even though the weather may get colder for the next couple of months. Tonight also, we have an eclipse of the moon, an event that has not coincided with the winter solstice since 1638.