Super Moon this Saturday

[Halton Hills]

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On March 19th.....the Moon will make its closest pass in 18 years

It will appear to be about 30% brighter and about 15% larger than a “normal” full Moon

The increase in gravitational pull should create slightly higher tides......and not much else

I wouldn't worry too much about severe storms, powerful earthquakes, mass volcanic eruptions, or even Charlie Sheen acting normal..... :roll:  

What it will create is a beautiful spectacle......and if the sky is clear......perhaps a great photo op ....... :wink:

Always great to catch it early if you can......when it's low in the sky.....usually has great colour and appears more massive

On Saturday.......the Moonrise should be around 7:50 pm or so.


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Photo Credit: JPL/NASA
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[Halton Hills]

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Exposure

The main problem most people have with moon photography is that they think of the moon as a “night subject”.
Because of this they turn their cameras to the night preset or automatically start at a slow shutter speed to
increase light. The moon, however, is so bright that the opposite is true. It is basically like taking a photo of an
illuminated light bulb in a dark room. If you use the exposure reading your camera gives you with its built-in light meter,
the image will be overexposed and will simply be a bright dot without any detail. To get a clear, detailed photograph of
the moon you will need to underexpose the image by 1/2 stop to 1 stop. It is fine to use a small F-stop (large aperture)
for this application as the distance between us and the moon increases the effective depth of field considerably.


Shutter Speed

The moon moves. Because the moon rotates around the Earth as the Earth itself is moving, slow shutter speeds will cause
blur on your moon photographs. Use the highest possible shutter speed with a relatively small F-Stop to get a good exposure
(in this case slightly underexposed) image. With the desired slight underexposure, you should be able to get a fast enough
shutter speed to hand-hold your camera.

To achieve some fine detail, use of a 300mm lens or 10 times zoom is ideal........with a shutter speed of at least 1/350 for a clear image.


When to Shoot

Contrary to what you may expect, nighttime is not always the best time to shoot the moon. Just after sunset and just before sunrise
often yield the best moon images. Because of atmospheric conditions, the moon appears largest just after rising. The first 30 minutes
after moonrise is the best time to get close-up images of the moon as it appears much larger in the sky than later in its arc.


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[Moira]

Appreciate you taking the time to provide the shooting advice - thank you.

[Kin Lau]

When shooting the moon, keep in mind that it's actually "daytime" on the moon, so we use the "Sunny 16" rule. ISO 100, F16, 1/100 shutter.

Since you want a faster shutter, f11 1/200, f8 1/400, f5.6 1/800 are all equivalent exposures at iso 100.

For focal length, while 300mm or 10x will get you a decent moon, just don't expect it to fill the frame. As a comparison, my shots here http://www.flickr.com/photos/88821321@N00/2280368947/ of the 2008 Eclipse were taken with a 500mm lens + 2x teleconverter, so about 1000mm plus the crop factor of my 1Dm2 (1.3x) got me pretty close to full-frame.

On the 19th in the GTA, the sunset is 7:28 and moonrise is 7:52, so you should be able to get the moon in twilight with a lovely deep blue background. A location near the lake will be ideal. We used to go to Rouge Beach for the moonrise.

For help in figuring out sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset times and where the sun and moon will rise, I use http://photoephemeris.com/, it's a free tool and works great.

[egret]

tks for the tip

I love the Moon
at any time
and this is special!



Egret

[Howieh]

and while we're on the subject of celestial objects, if you've never seen Mercury this evening presents a great opportunity (weather permitting of course).  After 7:30 look directly above the point on the horizon where the sun set; both Jupiter and Mercury (the higher of the two bright 'stars') should be visible. I photographed both planets yesterday with a small P&S camera. Also happening this evening:

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/

[Napper]

Hey!

The moon was almost full Friday at 5:00 am and was impressive.

This super moon everyone is talking about..is it happening at 5 am Saturday as it sets Looking North West Or Saturday Evening at 7:30 pm??.

I am thinking the view assuming it is clear at 5:00 am 6 hours from now will be better than 7:00pm when it is high in the sky? I dunno just asking

Napper

p.s. I can't find any real detailed info on the web

[Bird Brain]

Napper ... this following site seems to have more information than most:

www.thenightskyguy.com

[Bird Brain]

WOW, anyone else watch the Super Moon rising?  Spectacular!!!  

Unfortunately, within 5 minutes it was behind clouds.  Hopefully it will appear again soon.

For sure they will be showing it on The Weather Network.

[Reuven_M]

Which direction should I be looking in? I couldn't see anything about 5 minutes ago.

[newfoundlander61]

Tough to get a clean snap with it being 30% brighter. Heres two from tonight.

[Napper]

Hey Paul Nice !



I tried and tried and I finally gave up.  The moon didn't appear until 8:27.

1) trees
2)hydro wires
3) don't forget  to turn off auto iso.(I don't know why it was on) :roll:  

Cropped and sharpened I lightened it abit

 http://outdoorontario.net/Gallery/album22/DSC_1489_1






I'll try again when it clears all the obstructions with a tripod

[Bird Brain]

Reuven ... I'm looking "South" towards Erin Mills/Lakeshore then UP into the night sky.  After my earlier posting, the moon re-appeared and was a beautiful orange/yellow then became yellow/white.  I hope you get to see this beauty!  At the time of your posting earlier, the moon was behind some clouds for about 5-10 minutes.

Initial sighting at 7:52pm was incredible - HUGE and bright red on the horizon.  

Paul ... Wow!  I especially like your 2nd photo - really shows off the amazing colour from earlier this evening.

[Moira]

I saw it very clearly at Whitby Harbour.  It was very dark orange rising and moved up quickly, changing colour.  I found it a real challenge to shoot, but did get some shots.  I then drove over to Thickson Woods and shot a few from there.  It gave a nice stream of light over Lake Ontario, with pine trees on the shore it was very picturesque.  Paul, I found it hard to get a sharp shot as well.

[chiuj]

I got these two at Scarborough Rough waterfront.  Tried few shots with the moon and stream of light over the water, but not successfuly as the brightness between the two was too much.

John