My Sneaking-Out-Of-The-House Routine
As a kid, living in Carbondale, Illinois, I used to sneak out of the house for all kinds of reasons, rarely, where any of them were good.
The night before last, I felt like I was reliving my sneaking out of the house routine again; this time at 64 years of age. What's cool, is that 54 years later, that adrenaline rush and that feeling of anxiety was still there. I knew I was doing something I shouldn't be doing, but I was going to do it anyway. What's the worst thing that could happen? ... Lock me up.
There has been some really cool shit going on this week in the night sky and I've been fixated on it. My new favorite moon, the crescent moon, is reaching its sexy stage before it goes dark for the next new moon. Accompanying the moon early yesterday morning was Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury. Awesome to see!!! All were clearly visible on a crystal clear night in Erie.
I left the house at 2:30 a.m. to get set up for the moon rise, which was 3:07 a.m. In retrospect, I could have used an extra 15 minutes, but I made it work under pressure... and pitch black.
The goal of this photo was to capture an amazingly beautiful OLD barn in the foreground with some soft light and catch the crescent moon as it was low in the sky. I had scoped out the scene during the daylight and knew the moon should rise over the barn. I did not know exactly where it would be, but enough to get set up and be ready. I had to shift a bit to the right once I saw it popping up over the roof of the barn.
In addition to my normal camera paraphernalia, I was bringing a portable light and a 15 pound battery charger for a power source. I turned the light as low as I could in order to get some illumination on the building and foliage.
Capturing this photo of the barn, and others to follow is important to me as the old barn is being renovated (that's a great thing), but I am sure it will lose that rustic feeling that it has in its present state. So, I need to snag some photos now.
I'm not certain about the two planets that are in the photo, but I "think" they are Venus and Mercury. I think Jupiter was higher and to the right and could not fit in the frame I was focused on.
This coming full moon, I am pretty sure I know where I will be. I'll have my bail money ready.
It felt good sneaking out of the house.