From 9:40pm to 1:40am on July 27, 2018, the camera never moved from this spot at Amberd Fortress, never shook in its resolve to capture the entire sequence of the total lunar eclipse. The 23 images of the Moon are taken 10 minutes apart, beginning with a full moon at 10:00pm (leftmost moon), and progressing through the partial eclipse, which began at 10:24pm, the total eclipse, which began at 11:30pm, and the end of the total eclipse at 1:13am. The last image is at 1:40am, during the partial phase at the end of the eclipse. Almost exactly at midnight, with the Moon barely visible, the Milky Way made a grand appearance, and a 30-second exposure (with Amberd Fortress lit by portable lights) serves as the background.
The refracted rays of the Moon, just below the local horizon, illuminate Banner Peak in the Ansel Adams Wilderness as the Milky Way rises majestically above the Eastern Sierra. This photo appears in my photo essay The Tale of a Thousand Islands.
Banner Peak in the Ansel Adams Wilderness is illuminated by the Moon, just below the horizon.
