November's Sunset Moon Rise is Tonight

With only 12-13 full moon dates each year, I like planning ahead to catch the moon rising at sunset and setting at sunrise.  In addition to the full moon setting at sunrise tomorrow, the nearly-full moon will rise just before sunset tonight.  This timing is useful in landscape photography because you can catch some color in the rising and setting moon, but you can also catch the landscape lit well enough to balance the moon and landscape exposures.  In other words, as the moon brightens and the landscape darkens, you'll enjoy a few minutes where you have the opportunity to catch the moon with detail over the landscape (not simply as a blown out white disk).

Here are a couple of blog posts I've written on the topic;
Anticipating Sun and Moon Alignments
http://activesole.blogspot.com/2010/03/anticipating-sun-and-moon-position.html
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

The image below is the full moon setting during a lunar eclipse just before dawn at Mono Lake, much like it will tomorrow morning for observers in the Western U.S. (weather permitting).  I had hoped to catch the moon rising and setting here tonight as my back-up plan when my first choices clouded over, but our skies are looking pretty cloudy here as well, and the forecast is not promising.

Lunar eclipse moon set over Mono Lake

Google+: Reshared 74 times
Google+: View post on Google+