Full Moon Alert

This Friday night, the full moon will be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser full Moons we've seen earlier in 2008. Yikes

If you can brave the weather, you might want to get a moonrise shot.

More information can be found here

Best,
Don

Thanks for the info. I think i'll give it a shot (pun intended). :)

Very cool Don, thanks for the info.

Thanks for keeping everyone up to date on these celestial events Don! I'll keep my fingers crossed for clear skies...

BTW, how was your trip to Riverlands Bird Sanctuary?

Bill, the Riverlands trip was great! There were 200 trumpeter swans when I was there and 300 a week later. I stayed overnight in Alton so I could be there before dawn. Lots of photo ops and most of the birds did not have collars! If you decide to go there someday, let me know and I'll give you some tips on where to position for good shots.

Don

Thanks for the information Don. Hope to put it to good use this weekend.

In scouting for a full moon shooting location late yesterday, I saw the most beautiful hoar frost on the mountain tops I've ever seen. I am in agony today because I'm unable to be over there shooting it early this morning. Tim - I'm hoping you got some keepers so I can look back and remember what a beautiful experience it was. All I could do was look around in awe as darkness fell, and clouds parted revealing a beautiful almost-full moon. Wow...

Well, the landscape/moon display was a bust last night due to clouds. Clouds predicted again for tonight with freezing rain predicted for Sunday night through Tuesday morning. Let's hope they're wrong.

I did enjoy one of the best sunsets in sometime last night although it was through the side mirrors of my truck rolling east down I-70.

For those wanting to photograph the moon at its closest to the earth for the year, Perigee, tonight's the night. Now where did I put that cloud exclusion filter...

Best,
Don

Sounds like I needed to be in Ft. Smith last night. It was clear where I was at, but the sun was still too high in the sky for any good color when the moon finally showed up an hour before sunset. In fact, it had already risen 2 or 3 degrees above the horizon before I could actually see it. Even then it was a rather ho-hum white. I hope tonight will be better with the sun setting 10-15 minutes before the moon comes up - the time when the best cloud color usually develops. I will probably shoot a few frames just before sunset while there's still some landscape color, and then wait for the real show when the sky (hopefully) gets good, and blend the exposures together.

Don, glad you at least got a good sunset show. I hear B+W has a new 180 degree reflection filter/extension tube you might consider adding to your collection for times when you are forced to watch those sunsets in your mirror. Looks like something right out of a James Bond movie...

Sorry for trying to help out - most photographers don't understand that the day of a full moon is not the best day to photograph it - at least when you live in the mountains. Flatlanders are different. I will try to refrain from passing along my meager knowledge from now on, the altitude is getting to me anyway...

Tim - didn't you mean to say moonSET in the last sentence of your 8:58 post? May be the altitude...