From May until sometime in October, the chance of an afternoon or an evening thunderstorm is omnipresent on the Space Coast. Sometimes you get both — summer is the wet season here, and you have to factor that into any plan you make for the evening. Such was the case last night, with scattered thunderstorms firing up in the late afternoon and continuing until after midnight.

For some folks — like me — that was disappointing, the longest total lunar eclipse in many a year was happening in the skies above us, and depending on where one was located, you either got to see the whole celestial show, or very little of it. I had planned a series of photographs marking the beginning to end of the eclipse cycle, but storms and their clouds kyboshed that completely. So go the plans of mice and men, it is said.

Then, just as the last slivers of direct sunlight were being chased off Luna’s surface by the encroaching shadow of the Earth, the clouds parted, but the air remained humid and thick. Alas, serendipity!

Using extreme settings that were disadvantageous to good photography, in mediocre atmospheric conditions, this is what I saw.