You have undoubtedly heard about the supermoon and were aware that last’s night full moon was of the super variety. When I’m in the mood to photograph a moonrise I often try first on the day before the full moon. It’s light enough then so that the brightness of the rising moon doesn’t create a difficult-to-photograph high-contrast scene. It also makes it easier to capture detail in the foreground. So, the night before last, after carefully studying The Photographer’s Ephemeris to determine exactly where it would rise, I went out to Picnic Point with camera gear, tripod, and compass in hand determined to get a great shot. I chose this location because I was hoping I could capture the moon rising over the Capitol Building with Lake Mendota in the foreground.
I walked the length of Picnic Point trying to find a location where the Capitol would be situated at the same compass heading as the upcoming moonrise. There were so many trees preventing access to the shoreline or blocking the view of the Capitol that I couldn’t find an ideal location. I finally settled for one where the moon wouldn’t be too far from the Capitol. That way I could at least get both subjects in the same frame. Unfortunately, by late afternoon the sky became quite hazy. I didn’t see the moon until well after it rose and even then all I got was a photo of a barely visible moon.
Undaunted, I decided that I would go out again last night. This time the clouds moved in much earlier and much thicker. Daunted, I decided not to bother. Kathy and I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel instead.
After the movie we walked outside to look for the moon. The clouds were not as thick and the moon was visible behind them. The changing sky was fascinating so we decided to watch for awhile. Kathy said that she could see an orange ring around the moon. I’m a bit colorblind and wasn’t sure that I could see any color at all. But, the moon looked kind of interesting with trees and clouds in the foreground so I decided to take a few photos.
I didn’t bother to download and look at my photographs until today. Much to my surprise I could now see the orange ring around the moon. The image above was not altered in Photoshop. It’s a raw image that I processed in Lightroom by reducing the noise, adding some sharpness, and upping the clarity and vibrance. The image below was just a tighter zoom.
Both of these images were taken handheld at 1/30s and f/5.6 using a Canon 7D with a 70-200mm f/4L lens and a 1.4x Canon teleconverter. The ISO was 1600. The first was taken with the zoom set to 98mm and the second was at 280mm (full magnification).
These were not the images that I had in mind when I originally set out, but they are interesting, nonetheless.