Full moon rising behind Start Point Lighthouse

[grebeman]

I have at last been able to put together another of my "strollumentaries", this one required my health to be such that I felt up to doing it, the sky had to be clear to the east at dusk and the lunar cycle had to be correct. This afternoon those things came together. On the last 2 suitable lunar cycles there has been complete cloud cover so the project couldn't good ahead then.

Tonight was a full moon and by consulting online astronomical data for the altitude and azimuth of the moon I was able to determine where in relation to the lighthouse I should be in order for the moon to rise virtually behind the lighthouse. It is critical since with the lighthouse being built at the end of a long and very narrow point there is only one location that allows you to be in the correct position to photograph this event, namely my old favourite, Peartree Point, which has featured here before.

Below you can see the results. All photographs were taken on a Panasonic GF1 at iso 200, other data and timings appear below each photograph.

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Voigtlander 50mm, f2.5 Color Skopar @ f/11, 1/40 sec
This shows the lighthouse in the final rays of the sun at 16.26 hours

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Voigtlander 15mm, f/4.5 Super Wide Heliar @ f/11, 1/8 sec
Yes, the moon rising virtually behind the lighthouse, this is at 16.54 hours, some 14 minutes after moonrise. The light has yet to be fully illuminated

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Voigtlander 75mm, f/2.5 Color Heliar @ f/8, 1/10 sec
This shot was taken at 17.04 hours, the light has only just begun to strike

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Voigtlander 75mm, f/2.5 Color Heliar @ f/8, 1/25 sec
This shot was at 17.11 hours, the light is now fully operational

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Voigtlander 50mm, f/2.5 Color Skopar at 1 sec
Unfortunately a little camera shake I fear, despite being tripod mounted, to hasty to press the shutter I fear and catch the beam as it swept past me, never mind it does convey the atmosphere.

There was a thinnest of light cloud streaking across the sky near the moon, hence the streaks which don't always give the impression of cloud in the final 3 photographs

I hope you enjoyed my late afternoon stroll.


Barrie

 

[DesertRose]

Well conceived and shot, Barrie! Have you thought about doing any blending of your exposures?? Looks like the two middle shots would blend nicely to bring out foreground detail and keep the awesome lighting effects taking place.

 

[michaelfinch]

Barrie - Lovely photos, great atmosphere. The moon up here rises too quickly - or maybe I was too slow to get things together.
Cheers

 

[grebeman]

Well conceived and shot, Barrie! Have you thought about doing any blending of your exposures?? Looks like the two middle shots would blend nicely to bring out foreground detail and keep the awesome lighting effects taking place.

Thanks for your comments. With regard to blending I'm some way behind the curve when it comes to software. Although I use Bibble Pro 5.2 (which is the latest version of that software) I'm using it with Linux since I don't have Windows later than Windows 2000, so I don't have a software option to do any blending.

Barrie

 

[grebeman]

Barrie - Lovely photos, great atmosphere. The moon up here rises too quickly - or maybe I was too slow to get things together.
Cheers

Michael,

I've just checked and moonrise in your area is as fast, or slow, as it is here, so I think we know which excuse applies

It's about 8 degrees in 1 hour.

Barrie

 

[Djarum]

I absolutely love the second shot.

Shooting a full moon in a scene can be tough. To get detail in the moon, everything else is underexposed, and to get detail in the rest of the scene, the moon is a bright white blob. The second one for me is really exposed well.

 

[michaelfinch]

Spot on Barrie! Been a bad couple of days so far. I went out yesterday with the G1 and a MF camera. Checked the camera before I left home; all ok including batteries so I decided to travel light and leave the bag at home. When I got to where I wanted to be I couldn't find the QR for the tripod head and MF batteries died immediately I switched on; batteries for MF in bag back at home. By then I had to get back to do a bit more work.
There really is no excuse for lapses like that...............but anyone else get caught out from time to time?
Of course the answer is to use a fully mechanical camera but my MF is an ancient Mamiya 6, it's a joy to use and a lot lighter than my even more ancient C3. Plus it fits in a large pocket.
Cheers
Michael

 

[Spuff]

The moon was great here in the south UK last night. Very clear and bright.
I only had my compact with me. I put it on some railings and set it to the shortest long exposure it would do (came out like daylight).
The only thing lighting this was the moon, the sky was black to the eye. Magical river walk.
I wrangled it the best I could and I have this (the water is the Thames):

<IMG height=320 src="http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/739/thamesmoon1of1.jpg[/img]500>

I would have gone back with my EPL and my tripod but the moon rose too high above the trees. One that got away.
Would have liked a long zoom. There were wisps of cloud across the moon that would have made it lovely.
Must keep track of full moon dates.

 

[deirdre]

Barrie, wonderful work!

 

[russell]

Regarding exposure difficulties with the moon, I have found it pays if possible to try the shot you have in mind the day before the moon is full. That way it's 50 minutes ahead of where it would be the next day -so there is more chance of it being at the altitude you want it whilst still retaining enough dusk sunlight to bring the landscape up to a reasonable brightness.

 

[grebeman]

Russell,

I had considered this but moonrise on the 18th was at 15.18 hours and on the 19th it was 16.42 hours and I wanted a shot with the full moon close to the lighthouse when the lamp was illuminated. I had previously done some shots (back in November) probably 2 hours after moon rise when the only way I could combine both the moon and the lighthouse in the same shot was to use a wide angle (12mm, f/5.6 Voigtlander). That was when I realised the lucky coincidence at that site with a full moon rising. I hadn't been able to do anything until now because the days when it occurred were fully clouded in.
The moon would have been some 14 degrees higher in the sky when the lighthouse was illuminated, the light doesn't come on until about 25 minutes after sunset, hence my choice of day.
I was surprised to see the time difference one day to the next for moon rise but it seems that the lunar cycle is such that its rise time doesn't advance linearly day to day, it varies depending on the moons cycle with the average over a lunar month perhaps equating to your 50 minutes.

Barrie

 

[nseika]

Loved the upper half of the second from last picture. The cloud looks like silk behind the moon and the details are visible.
But the reflection at the lower half of the last picture is also pretty. Too bad it’s on different FoV.

Since the horizon is quite flat, how about combining both picture ?

 

[grebeman]

Loved the upper half of the second from last picture. The cloud looks like silk behind the moon and the details are visible.
But the reflection at the lower half of the last picture is also pretty. Too bad it’s on different FoV.

Since the horizon is quite flat, how about combining both picture ?

I had to put a lens on that would cover a wider field of view for the last shot due to the increased elevation of the moon.

An earlier post of mine in this thread hints at why I wouldn't attempt to combine different photographs, lack of suitable software to run in linux, still thanks for the suggestion.

Barrie