Super Blood Wolf Moon: a rare beast eclipses Fingle Woods
For most of us, that Monday morning feeling is a powerful force of nature, driving our instincts to stay in bed for that extra five minutes; to hide under the covers and hope that the alarm clock has made a mistake. But when a rare beast is about to make an appearance in Fingle Woods, that gut feeling can be quelled by the most intrepid photographers. A ‘wolf’ was coming to the woods and it would be too good to miss.
Lenses and tripods packed, Paul Moody and Tom Williams set out in the dark, converging at Wooston hillfort at 4.30am. Keen not to miss this rare phenomenon, Dave Rickwood set out from Okehampton at 4am to join them. In an ideal world, the perfect weather for a lunar eclipse would start with a crystal-clear sky, an unimpeded vision of the stars. But Okehampton has a reputation for weather of an altogether different nature; Soak-hampton is synonymous with cloud. Describing his journey, Dave said, “Once I got up, I realised the sky was cloudy. I thought, should I go back to bed? But Paul had made plans. A minute-by-minute itinerary of the best viewpoints of the moon’s traverse from the penumbra to the partial to the full, deep red eclipse. My hair was a mess, a lunatic fringe had to be restrained in a woolly hat and I set off”. On reaching Whiddon Down the clouds began to part and the optimism for a clear view of this lunar spectacle was rising.
Lenses and tripods packed, Paul Moody and Tom Williams set out in the dark, converging at Wooston hillfort at 4.30am. Keen not to miss this rare phenomenon, Dave Rickwood set out from Okehampton at 4am to join them. In an ideal world, the perfect weather for a lunar eclipse would start with a crystal-clear sky, an unimpeded vision of the stars. But Okehampton has a reputation for weather of an altogether different nature; Soak-hampton is synonymous with cloud. Describing his journey, Dave said, “Once I got up, I realised the sky was cloudy. I thought, should I go back to bed? But Paul had made plans. A minute-by-minute itinerary of the best viewpoints of the moon’s traverse from the penumbra to the partial to the full, deep red eclipse. My hair was a mess, a lunatic fringe had to be restrained in a woolly hat and I set off”. On reaching Whiddon Down the clouds began to part and the optimism for a clear view of this lunar spectacle was rising.
by Matt Parkins
