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Yosemite Moon Rise Between Half Dome and El Capitan

landscape photography bu Jeff Sullivan
landscape photography bu Jeff Sullivan

Moon rise between Half Dome and El Capitan

I’ve been pursuing this moon rise on and off since at least 2006. The weather doesn’t always cooperate, but I’ve caught it from several different vantage points now, and I have a few more in mind for return trips.

On this trip I captured a sequence of shots so I could assemble a time-lapse movie showing the moon rise.

There are a couple of climbers on El Capitan which you can see better in the time-lapse video, as you see them move. My draft copy is good, but I should remaster it at higher resolution so you can see the climbers moving on the 3000 foot face of El Capitan to the left, and I should better smooth out exposure changes.

Moon Rise Behind Half Dome

I entered a frame from the time-lapse with the moon appearing just on top of Half Dome in the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. It was selected for inclusion in a video about that astrophotography contest by the royal Astronomy, Greenwich:

I uploaded my video to YouTube and it only got about 100 views, but Twitter user @TomHall shared it and it got closer to 10,000 views!

Google+: Reshared 92 times

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90 thoughts on “Yosemite Moon Rise Between Half Dome and El Capitan”

  15. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    These are the two I was thinking of +logan hubbard… took me a minute to find them:
    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/hq_kOiB2ZhUe6bmcuf8-MdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/UkhJP5DfuBoY6Kgiukrm4tMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

    Last year there was one other guy from Seattle who ahs anticipated the shot and was shooting with us.  One of my photos from last year had over 23,000 views online, and this year there were 30 people shooting in this position, probably a dozen or two more at last year's position!

  25. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    I determine when and where to catch moon events like this +James Haney.

    I wrote a blog post back in 2006 on anticipating shots like this one: 
    Plan Ahead for Great Full Moon Rise and Set Shots!
    http://activesole.blogspot.com/2006/11/plan-ahead-for-great-full-moon-rise-and.html

    That planning got even easier with the creation of apps like +The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE), as I describe in this 2011 update blog post:
    Put Sunset Full Moon Rise Dates on Your Calendar
    http://activesole.blogspot.com/2010/12/put-sunset-full-moon-rise-dates-on-your.html

    TPE is free for Windows PCs and Macs, $9.99 for smart phones.  Check the pre-full moon rise dates and times in your area, and pick some nice spots to catch the next sunset moon rises or sunrise moon sets coming up! 

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