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Clear Night in the High Country Led to Some Wonderful Photos of the Total Lunar Eclipse

Photo courtesy of Todd Bush

By Nathan Ham

The “Super Blood Wolf Moon” total lunar eclipse lived up to its billing on Sunday night with some breathtaking photos of the last total lunar eclipse until 2021.

Sky gazers across North America and South America had the best view for this eclipse. People in Europe and the western parts of Africa also had decent views as everyone kept their eyes in the sky.

Local photographer Todd Bush shared some of his best shots with the High Country Press and detailed his experience getting the photos.

“I set up on the east side of our house on the deck and I used my body to block the wind as much as I could. I’d go out every 15 minutes or so and take some shots,” Bush said. “I left the camera out there and I was blown away that the battery held up for the two or three hours that it was out there.”

Bush noticed that some of his photos were unexpectedly blurry or darker than he was expecting. That’s when he realized that by the end of the night, his camera lens had snow built up on the end of it. The high wind gusts also caused some of the photos to turn out blurry.

While taking his photos, Bush said that it “felt like you were standing on the surface of the moon.”

“Everything just had the glowing silvery feeling like the moon often looks,” he added. “The light felt surreal somehow, it made it even more special.”

Bush’s home is outside of Banner Elk and the temperature was 4 degrees at midnight with wind gust of 50 mph.

Folks have said that cloud cover blocked the view of the total part of the eclipse in Boone.

The peak of total eclipse happened at 12:12 a.m. EST.

Full moons have a name given to them for each month with these names dating back to Native American tribes that used the moons to keep track of the seasons. For January, the moon has been known as the Full Wolf Moon, named after the howling wolves that tended to arrive in packs around Native American villages during the coldest times of the year. The “super blood moon” part comes from the fact that it is a total lunar eclipse at the point where the moon is closest to the earth and the light from the sun gives the moon an orange and red tint.

To see more of Bush’s photography, visit his website at www.bushphoto.com.

Photos courtesy of Todd Bush.

A timeline of the total lunar eclipse Sunday night.
This is the photography setup used by Todd Bush to capture the lunar eclipse.