Last Thursday, May 3rd, Nina Downing Cazille posted on the Chester County PA Photography Facebook page, a Yahoo! News story, that suggested on Saturday night, that not only was the Super Moon going to be visible, possibly Saturn and maybe a dusting from Halley’s comet!
There was some spirited discussion on who might attend, and much speculation about the weather, since much of the past week or so, has been very cloudy and rainy.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, and looked out the window, only to find the skies still thickly clouded.
This was not good.
With coffee in hand, I went to the Chester County PA Photography page, and started a new thread, trying to finalize the details for our rather impromptu meet-up, later in the night.
Throughout the day, I kept looking at the sky, and try to figure out which way the clouds were moving.
In the mid-afternoon, I took both my kids down to East Ward elementary school, to burn off some energy in preparation for the evening, and when we started to leave, I was beginning to see increasingly larger sections of blue sky, which was very encouraging for a night of photographing the Super Moon.
By the time dinner had been prepared and consumed, the cloudy skies had returned.
Just before I left, I quickly checked the radar for clouds, and the hourly animation strongly suggested that there were big clear pockets of clear sky, coming down from the north, and would be over us within an hour or so.
Using Creek Road (Rt. 282), I got to the boating side of Marsh Creek State Park, within 20 minutes, and was able to find easy parking because many people were already packing up and leaving for the night.
After parking, I started to get my gear, but hesitated from getting it all out, because I still feared that no one was going to show up.
When I reached the predetermined meeting point, I was very delighted and relieved to see several other people standing there with their cameras!
- Nina Downing Cazille
- Shannon Chambers McMahon
- Tony Babcock
- Elaine Erwin-Babcock
- I know I am missing some folks!
It was very nice to know that I am not the only crazy one!
After the various introductions, I headed back to my car, and grabbed my gear, heading back to the group to setup for the rest of the evening.
As the night wore one, we talked about various topic, and exchanged various stories about photography, family and life.
We also tried to identify which towns were glowing against the sky line, as well as experimenting with flashes and flash-lights.
At 23:35, when perigee finally arrived, the clouds were still as thick as when we started, but it did seem a little brighter, which could also have been from us standing in the dark for the past three and half hours.
It was not long after, that we packed up our gear, said our good byes and headed home. In reading the subsequent posts on the Facebook page, it seems that everyone had a good time!