Tutorial on Moon Photography Planning – Live Tonight!

Tonight I’ll be broadcasting a live tutorial on how to determine exactly where to stand to place the moon on top of a natural or man-made landmark.  Here’s a link to the event if you’d like to join us: http://goo.gl/DSXu8Z

In this example, I predicted where to catch the full moon during a lunar eclipse so its path would pass the tip of the Transamerica Building in San Francisco.  Using eclipse predictions, lunar elevation angle and compass direction, I used the height of the tower to predict how far away I’d need to stand and in what compass direction.  I mapped that point on Google Earth, showed up a little early to start shooting hundreds of photos to created the time-lapse sequence, and it turned out that I pretty much nailed it!  The center of the moon passed right across the tip of the tower.

New tools make this sort of planning easier than ever! We’ll be demonstrating the PhotoPills app.  If you’d like to purchase the app to follow along on your smartphone as we show the features, follow this link to buy it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photopills/id596026805?mt=8&uo=4&at=10ldnC

Here’s a time-lapse video I created of the moon as it approached and passed the Transamerica Building:

This video was featured on Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog on Discover Magazine:
Lunar eclipse time lapse : Bad Astronomy
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/12/12/lunar-eclipse-time-lapse/

Here are some more sun and moon photos for you to enjoy: