Last night was an awesome night! After reading about the lunar eclipse, I made plans to stay up and photograph it, even though it wasn't due to occur until 2am Alaska Time. It was difficult to stay awake, as I had suffered from insomnia the night before and was only functioning on 4 hours of sleep. But I didn't want to miss this event and hoped for a clear night.

A little after 11pm, as Steve climbed the stairs to bed, I glanced outside and saw the moon - huge and bright and hovering just above the treetops. I put my camera gear in the car, kissed Steve goodnight, and drove off in search of a good vantage point for the eclipse. I considered driving down to the Chena Lakes Dam, where I imagined there would be other photographers patiently waiting for the eclipse. Halfway there, I changed my mind. I really wanted to stay close to home - particularly during the wee hours of the morning.

After pulling my car back into the garage, I set up my camera in the front yard and looked for open spaces between the trees to take a few test shots of the moon, and experiment with camera settings. But the moon kept shifting - both higher in the sky and to the right - until finally the trees of my front yard blocked my view.

At about the time the eclipse was supposed to start, the moon had moved over the road in front of my house and was visible above the treetops. I set up my tripod on the shoulder and kept watch. Soon, I saw a shadow appear on the left side of the moon. I shot a frame every few minutes to capture the growing shadow as it squelched the light of the moon, and caused the night sky to darken.

The moon was so bright, that looking in the direction of it, made the rest of the evening sky fade. In between photos, I happened to glance up into the sky directly above me. A faint green band moved across the sky. At first I thought it was a low-lying cloud which was reflecting moonlight. I turned and looked to my rear - into the darker skies behind me - and I knew it wasn't a cloud. Multiple bands of pale green light were moving across the sky.

I was faced with a dilemma. Should I take off my zoom lens and put on my wide angle to photograph the lights, or should I continue photographing the eclipse? I opted to continue with the eclipse. That is until the green bands got brighter and more numerous and lit up the sky! I quickly swapped lenses and began shooting the lights - keeping an eye on the moon so I wouldn't miss anything.

I took about 10 shots of the lights before abandoning them, and putting on my lens for the moon. Many times I wanted to kick myself for not keeping my wide angle lens on - particularly as the lights danced in curtains across the inky sky.

When I finally came inside after 3am, I downloaded my photos to see what I had captured. I was pleased with the results of my evening, spent standing in the middle of my street in the dark.

	After the moon was in shadows, the night went much darker.	I created an animation using 11 separate frames of the lunar eclipse. Of course it didn't happen this fast.

All in all, it was well worth the lack of sleep to capture such a spectacular middle of the night show! The lights are supposed to be active until Friday morning. I don't know if I'm going to be able to stay up tonight, but I hope to at some time this week.