What the moon, the sun and the stars did in October...

October has been quite an astronomical month and I'm so excited to be able to take pictures of these incredible events.  It all began with a lunar eclipse on October 7th.  You can read more about the event in my earlier blog but I've included the pictures here again.  The first is of the moon taken on the night of October 6th.  It was beautifully clear and I was so glad to be able to get a good moon picture.  Then the lunar eclipse occurred in the pre-dawn hours and a few high clouds made it a little fuzzy but still impressive.  The moon doesn't look quite that red in person (since our eyes don't see color well at night) but the camera can see it all.
    On October 23rd we had a partial solar eclipse.  Now instead of the earth getting between the sun and the moon, the moon got between the sun and the earth!  The day was a bit hazy and I used a neutral density filter (instead of a solar filter) so my picture turned out blue, but yes, that's the sun and a very big sun spot -- the biggest sun spot in 24 years!
    On October 18th and then on the 25th, Andy and I went up into the high country (Brainard Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park) to witness the Milky Way!  Photographing the Milky Way is actually quite easy and it was neat to be able to see so many stars at an early hour -- my best pictures were at 7:30 pm!  Can't wait until next year when the Milky Way becomes visible again.

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