Today a Blue Moon, the second full moon in a calendar month, appeared. Today the moon made its closest approach to earth in it’s orbit. It appeared 14% larger and 30% brighter than normal: this is known as a super moon. Today the shadow of the earth obscured the moon creating a lunar eclipse. All three events converged this day for the first time in North America since 1866, more than 150 years ago.

This convergence made it worth rolling out of bed at 5:00 am, gathering my camera, a cup of coffee from my Keurig, and heading for a spot overlooking Back Cove in Portland, Maine. Other folks with cameras were already there. The sky was perfectly clear, and the temperature was about 13 F°; great for pictures but hard on the fingers adjusting camera settings.

Here in Maine we didn’t get to see the eclipse, but we got to see it get started as the moon set in Portland. When I took my first pictures of the full moon it was its familiar bluish white, but the color started changing and we were treated to red color that occurs as the eclipse approaches.

Tides are affected by the moon, so Sue and I paid a visit to the Freeport Town Wharf at high tide, 11.4′ and again at low tide -1.9′ (this means -1.9′ below the average mean low tide) and the pictures are pretty amazing. I’m not sure where the ice came from during the day but the wharf and marina areas that were clear in the morning were full of ice this evening.

This evening we went to Winslow Park to watch the moon rise. Clouds were moving in but held off long enough for a couple more memorable shots.