Rozanne Rapozo is an excellent photographer and I feel privileged to be able to share her work with you. Around 3 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, a total lunar eclipse was seen from the Mendonoma coast.
A lunar eclipse occurs when a full Moon moves into the Earth's shadow and the Moon turns a deep reddish-orange or “blood red". This happens because Earth's atmosphere filters out all the blue light and refracts the longer red wavelengths into the shadow. This effectively projects all the world's sunrises and sunsets onto the Moon, giving us a blood red Moon.
What a sight!
Thanks to Rozanne for allowing me to share her photo with you here.
Several coast photographers got fantastic photos of the recent Northern Lights which occurred on January 19th. Mel Smith photographed this from his home in Point Arena.
Rozanne Rapozo caught this magic near her home on The Sea Ranch.
Kate Bloch used The Sea Ranch chapel to set off the lights in the sky - beautiful!
Ben Angwin's photo of the aurora, which also shows the Milky Way, will be in the Independent Coast Observer tomorrow, in my Mendonoma Sightings column.
Thanks to Mel, Rozanne and Kate for allowing me to share their wonderful photos with you here.
We had a storm yesterday which brought 0.65 inches of rain, the first rain in nearly three weeks. It was a gentle rain with not much wind - just the way we like it!
I was in awe of last night's sunset. The reds were magnificent and it lasted for well over fifteen minutes. Rozanne Rapozo took several photos from her home on The Sea Ranch and I thought this one looked like a painting. But she assures me it was the actual sunset!
I took this photo from inside Rick's and my house in Anchor Bay as the sunset was getting going.
Thanks to Rozanne for allowing me to share her photo with you here.
The vibrant sunset was letting us know a storm was headed our way. It's rather unusual in that it's coming in from the south. Most storms come in from the north. Batten down the hatches!
I had been looking forward to photographing the last Super Moon of 2025. So I set my alarm for 4am with the hope we would have a clear night. As it turns out. I needn’t to have worried, since when the alarm went off, my bedroom was filled with moonlight shining through the windows.
I checked the weather and noted it was going to be cold; I spent a nanosecond thinking about how tempting it was to remain in a nice warm bed. Then, got up, dressed, fed the cats who thought it was time for breakfast, made my coffee and set off for Galleons with a view of Arch Rock.
Walked out to the bluff, set up my gear and then waited for the Moon to move into position so I could catch the reflection on the water.
(C))Rozanne_Rapozo
By the time that happened, the temperature had dropped to under 40 degrees and a cold wind came up!
Needless to say, the wait was worth it. But when I started to pack up and put my gear away, my hands were so cold I couldn’t fold up my tripod!! Luckily it fit in the back seat of the car and I headed back home to a cozy fire and hot coffee, feeling very good about my shots and that the weather Gods cooperated.
Thanks to Rozanne for allowing me to share her photo with you here!
Happy holidays to all! We've been having a LOT of rain, over eight inches since Dec. 19th. More coming in tonight, Christmas Eve. Hope Santa is able to fly in the rainy weather!
Rozanne Rapozo saw this driftwood art several weeks ago. She wrote, "We have some very creative beachcombers! A friend spotted this on the beach a day or two earlier and then alerted us. We saw it originally from the bluff at Gualala Point Regional Park and immediately had to go down on to the beach to photograph it."
"Needless to say, I was taken aback by the creativity involved, from finding the ‘head’ and then carefully creating the skeleton by selecting appropriately sized ‘bones’ in varying lengths to build the dinosaur body. Too bad this wasn’t done as part of a contest, because it clearly would have won first prize! Thanks go out to the person or persons who did it!”
And thanks to Rozanne for photographing it so we can see it too, and for allowing me to share her photograph with you here.
Warm, no wind, high wispy clouds, a beautiful sunrise...it's close to a perfect day here on the Mendonoma Coast!
