the arrant thief

“The moon’s an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.” (Shakespeare, Timon of Athens.)

Since my lunar eclipse photos didn’t come out all that well (lousy frozen fingers), I figured I’d dig through some of my battlefield photographs and find a few interesting images that showed off the “arrant thief.” Obviously, you have to get somewhat lucky to catch the moon in terms of the time you visit the battlefields — the moon isn’t visible at all times during the lunar month — and additionally the moon has to be located just right to make for a decent picture. I thought some of these images were kind of cool, though, and worth highlighting and sharing. Anyway, enjoy!

Image to the left above is obviously the moon peaking out behind Warren near dark on Little Round Top.

Monument to Union General Henry W. Slocum, commander of the Union XII Corps (or the right wing, I suppose, if you want Slocum’s take on the whole thing) on Stevens Knoll. Steven’s Knoll is a small rise located between Culp’s Hill and East Cemetery Hill. The moon is about half full and is visible below the horse’s tail.

(Here is an actual attempt to photograph the moon that morning. It was taken from Wainwright Avenue — the lane that runs below East Cemetery Hill. Wainwright Avenue is named for the commander of the Artillery Brigade of the First Corps. It was known during the battle as the Brickyard Lane.)

Of course, one of the Federal corps that fought at Gettysburg had a crescent moon shape for a corps identification badge — it just so happened that the half moons were the ill-fated, incredibly unlucky XI Corps. The XI Corps was commanded by one-armed General Oliver Otis Howard (who I like to refer to as Uh Oh Howard) at Gettysburg. Howard was a pretty pious guy and he wasn’t exactly liked by his men all that much. This image shows the moon over Howard’s statue on East Cemetery Hill. (To pick out the moon in most of these by the way you do need to enlarge the images.)

In a clear case of even the losers get lucky sometimes :) I caught the moon directly above the Lutheran Theological Seminary one morning in the fall on an incredibly bright blue morning — which makes the pale white moon much easier to pick up.

You can view the moon directly above the spire of the famous cupola on Shumaker Hall. You may even be able to see it in the thumbnail image.

(Here’s an image of the moon above another Seminary building on the same bright blue morning.)

Finally, one last image — this picture is taken near sunset, near the clump of trees on a partly cloudy day. The moon is visible just above the thick bank of pink-purple-blue clouds directly above the clump of trees at the Angle on Cemetery Ridge.

I’ve never really tried to photograph the moon per se except in a few limited incidences, but I hope you enjoy the few pictures I have where the “arrant thief” slipped in to a battlefield photograph.

Tags: battlefields, Gettysburg, lunar, moon, photography