Chasing the Moon

We all know that the moon rises in the east, and many photographers in the Washington DC area seek to capture an image of the full moon as it rises above the monuments on the National Mall. The most popular location is on a hill in Arlington Virginia, in front of the Netherlands Carillon, and if you go there on any clear night when a full moon is expected, you may see as many as 20 photographers lined up with their tripods. Most of the time they are disappointed because the moon rises in a different location every night and it rarely rises in perfect alignment with the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. But as the image above shows, there are times that it will.Native Americans, long before colonialists arrived in the US, were aware of the moon’s apparent random pattern and dubbed the moon “the Wandering Old Man.” But the moon’s behavior is not random. It follows a predictable 19-year cycle, called the Metonic cycle, which was independently discovered by the Greek astronomer Meton who was born about 432 B.C. Simply put, this means that a given location on the horizon from which a full moon rises will not be precisely repeated for another 19 years.
There are other requirements for a decent photograph of the full moon. Obviously, good weather conditions are desirable. In addition, it is best to be shooting about 15-20 minutes after sunset, when the color of the sky is a deep blue, a time often called “the magic hour.” Taken together, it becomes quickly apparent that such a. combination of factors is indeed a rare event.
The photograph above was taken on September 5th of this year, one night after the full moon. The photographers that night had done their homework in advance, which involves obtaining the data on the precise location of the moonrise on the horizon and the use of a compass to plot the proper shooting location. The full moon the previous night had risen a little too soon and little too far to the south.
There are a number of sources for data on the moon and other celestial bodies. I rely on the website of the US Naval Observatory (http://aa.usno.navy.mil). Look under the Data Services link for the application that provides the “Altitude and Azimuth of the Sun or Moon During One Day.” You can look at any day in the present, past, or future. For example, the next full moon will be on October 4th, 2009 and will break the horizon at 5:41 PM EST in the Washington DC area. The azimuth reading is the compass sighting that tells you where it will be, in this case about 75 degrees east on due north. This means that it will be well to the north of where it came up on September 5th (about 85 degrees).
The above image may be doubted as “real” by some skeptics, but no Photoshop trickery was used here. The size of the moon is due to the telephoto lens used for the shot. The color is due to the haze and the low angle on the horizon. Here are the technical data:
Camera: Nikon D-200 on a tripod with an Nikon lens.
Lens: AF-S Nikkor 18-200 mm 1:3.5-5.6 G ED.
Exposure: 0.8 sec at f/5.6, at ISO 200, lens extension at 170mm.
Adobe Camera Raw adjustments:
Opened in ProPhot RGB Color space; 16 bit; 2592 x 3872 pixels (native)
Color Temp: 5700 K
Tint: -6
Exposure: +45
Recovery: 0
Fill Light: 1
Blacks: 5
Brightness: +48
Contrast: +25
Clarity: +53
Vibrance: +37
Saturation: 0
Photoshop CS3 processing was a single curves adjustment layer with very minor adjustment to increase contrast, masking for trees, blend mode set at luminosity. Unsharp mask dependent on size of print.

To see more of my efforts to capture the moon, check out my website at www.photographybykent.com