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eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
Sat May 5, 2012, 02:40 PM May 2012

Next level moon shooting (and could this be Moonhattanhenge?) (Maddowblog)

By Will Femia - Sat May 5, 2012 4:46 AM EDT.You've likely heard already that tomorrow (or today, depending on which side of sleep you're on) is this year's super moon. The super moon is the nearest full moon. This year the moon is officially full 25 minutes before it's at its perigee, its closest point to Earth, so like last year expectations are high for something spectacular. But unlike last year, I want to see if I can do more than find the right camera settings for a nice super moon photo.

What I know about the moon this year is that it's bright. If you want to see details on the moon instead of a glowing white circle, you can't let too much light into your camera. But if you wait until it's too dark out, all you'll get is the moon and everything else will be black. So what you want to shoot for is the "blue hour," which is that time when the sun is down but there's still some light in the sky.

You also want the moon as low as possible on the horizon. Not only will this give you the buildings or mountains or trees you need to make the photo interesting, but you can take advantage of an optical illusion that makes the moon seem even bigger.

So we need to know what time is going to be right and where the moon is going to be at that time. Thanks to my colleague Andy Dallos we have a bit of a cheat for knowing the time. He took the photo below at around 7:45 p.m. ET Friday.

That looks like a good amount of ambient light and it's not too high in the sky. But if you really want to plan your shot, or at least consider your possibilities, we have to know where in the sky it's going to be at that time.
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more: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/05/11548567-next-level-moon-shooting-and-could-this-be-moonhattanhenge?lite

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Next level moon shooting (and could this be Moonhattanhenge?) (Maddowblog) (Original Post) eppur_se_muova May 2012 OP
Good read. I wondered about this. n/t cynatnite May 2012 #1
even though I don't have the greatest camera for the moon Celebration May 2012 #2

Celebration

(15,812 posts)
2. even though I don't have the greatest camera for the moon
Sat May 5, 2012, 04:43 PM
May 2012

I've been planning this. Unfortunately there are some hazy clouds in the east now. We'll just have to see. I might set my alarm for a moonset if the moonrise doesn't work out.

Last night I practiced with settings to get the best moon shot. But the moon was pretty high, because it was too light still when the moon was low. Naturally, the sky was crystal clear yesterday!

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