To Move Heaven and … the Moon?

Sometimes in photographing nature, things work out. The lighting is incredible, the shadows fall just as we want them. The sky has just the right amount of cloudiness, and all of the stars align.

But more often than not, that doesn’t happen.

Like during the April 2024 solar eclipse when we traveled hundreds of miles to be in the right place at the right time. The weather started out great, but then minutes before totality, a cloud bank rolled overhead. It was still a great experience, but the photos were a dud.

And speaking of eclipses….

I had been looking forward to the total lunar eclipse of 3 March 2026 for a year, ever since the one that happened a year earlier. That was fun to shoot, but I had some good ideas to make this one unique.

Except that two days beforehand, storms rolled in and hovered over much of the country for several days. On the morning of the eclipse, there was nothing but a massive gray sky.

I was ready for a change of venue if needed, within reason. For a while, it looked like Joplin (two hours south) was going to see a bit of clearing, but then that forecast went south as well. Then perhaps Bentonville (another hour south). But even that fizzled. I could have gone to Texas, it appears, but I wasn’t ready to go that far on such short notice.

The next total lunar eclipse to be visible from Kansas City won’t be until the evening of 25 June 2029, so until then, I will be making plans.¹

1. However, late on 27 Aug 2026 there will be a partial eclipse that reaches 93% of totality, which should be pretty good. Also, there will be TLE on 31 Dec 2028 that will be visible until the moon sets out in the western United States. ↩︎