Did you know that there was a near-total lunar eclipse this morning that could be viewed through most of Canada and the United States? This “Beaver Moon lunar eclipse” was near its peak around 4:00 am EST, and once I heard about it (damn you, Scott) I decided to get up to try to get some photos, and freeze my fingers off in the process. I did the same thing a couple of years ago, when the “super blood moon” rolled through.

So here are a few of my favorite shots. I’m not a skilled photographer, so I spent the better part of an hour tinkering with settings, trying to get shots that matched pretty well what could be seen by eye.

The moon is reddish during a lunar eclipse because the majority of the light illuminating it comes through our atmosphere first, where the blue light of the sun is scattered preferentially, leaving red.

My last photo was at 4:22 am. At that point my fingers were freezing and I decided I must have at least one decent photo in the batch. Overall, I’m pretty happy with them, considering I’m just using a Canon camera that has a fair optical zoom.

One last thing: why is it called a “beaver moon?” Apparently that is the name for the full moon of November, which coincides with the time that beavers take shelter in their lodges to prepare for winter.

Hope you enjoyed these photos! Now I’m going to go catch up on some lost sleep…