Great Basin School of Photography

The next great sunset moon rise at Mono Lake is coming on Christmas Eve, around: 4:35 – 4:55 pm. See you there?

#canon #astrophotography #CanonFanPhoto

Originally shared by +Jeff Sullivan

Shoot the Full Moon at Sunrise/Sunset, 3 Times Tonight and Tomorrow

With only 12-13 full moon dates each year, I like planning ahead to catch the moon rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. You ahve three opportuniteis to catch great moon shots by tomorrow evening:

1) Tonight here in the Eastern Sierra, the 98% full moon will rise at 6:36pm, a little more than 30 minutes before the 7:10pm sunset, so I can choose a low shooting position to catch the moon near something 6.1 degrees up in the sky right at sunset.

2) The full moon will set tomottow morning at 6:56am, shortly after the 6:36am sunrise, so it will be a short distance up in the sky and I should try to be somewhere which enables me to catch it setting behind the crest of the Sierra Nevada at 6:30am, when it is 4 degrees up from where I am and there may be both color in the sky and orange alpenglow from the rising sun (a few minutes before scheduled sunrise, since the mountains are so much higher than the surrounding terrain).

3) Tomorrow night the full moon will rise at 6:56pm, 14 before the 7:09pm sunset. In other words, it will have been in the sky 15-30 minutes during the best sunset color. That works out to an elevation angle of .9 to 3.6 degrees, so I should find a location with a relatively low horizon tot he east.

Now if only I could pick not only a shooting position with the right elevation, but also one which lets me place the moon next to something interesting on the ground. Well if you read my blog, you know I use a tool which enables you to do exactly that:
Anticipating Sun and Moon Alignments
http://activesole.blogspot.com/2010/03/anticipating-sun-and-moon-position.html
The times will be slightly different depending upon where you are on the planet, but using +The Photographer's Ephemeris (#TPE) on top of Google Earth, you can easily work out fairly accurate times for your shooting positions.

In case you're interested, I've placed a high resolution copy of this image on 500px, where you can send it as a free ecard or order a print or gallery wrap canvas: http://500px.com/photo/1961454