I was expecting "meh," I've seen lunar eclipses before. I think what made it more dramatic for me is my remote rural location. My often dark-adapted eyes unfortunately (and unromantically and unpoetically) find bright moonlight irritating, but always impressive, not unlike the impressiveness of the amount of light on a clear sunny day (on a different scale with direct light rather than reflected, of course). The brightest moonlight is a full moon, and when it lands at the right time, say, midnight or there about, it was getting brighter all evening as it was getting higher in the sky. Then at it's peak brightness, slow but sure eclipse. But the brightness is gone for a lot of it, more than I expected. Then the moonlight returns, kind of like it's going through a full cycle in a few hours. Well, call me simple, but I was stunned and impressed. I carried a fivemega E1 w/ MN02, because I didn't think I needed a light, but it was bright enough. By now I'll want to take something brighter as the moonlight returns to spoil an otherwise perfect evening for flashlighting: the super blood wolf moon got me, but I was ready. Thank you CPF!