Moon

[Walter Graff]

Hey for you lucky folks that will not have clouds Friday night (I will where I live), the moon is closet to the earth this year Friday night and it happens to be a full moon. The moon will be 30% brighter than normal and 14% bigger. The best time to see it is just as it rises when an illusion of the horizon makes it look larger than it really is. Take that and the fact that its 50k kilometers closer to the earth and it should be a great show for anyone doing night scenes or shooting the moon.

[Serge Teulon]

That sounds great Walter, thanks for the heads up.

 

It looks like it's going to be a clear night in Londinium.

A couple of mate's and myself are going to be roaming around our city to grab some pics.

[Walter Graff]

Please do post a shot or two. Of course the effect of the larger and brighter moon will be more appreciated by your eye than the camera eye which can not appreciate the illusion of the larger moon on the horizon. But if you are doing some long exposure moon lit shots you can get some cooler effects with the brighter moon. Agian post a shot or two when you are done.

[John Sprung]

... the moon is closet to the earth this year Friday night and it happens to be a full moon. ... its 50k kilometers closer to the earth ....

 

William Shakespeare, from Othello: "It is the very error of the moon; She comes more near the earth than she was wont; And makes men mad."

 

So, be careful out there.... ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Serge Teulon]

Its overcast!! :(

 

The perils of living on an island.......

Edited December 12, 2008 by Serge Teulon

[Michael Tsimperopoulos SOC]

Ten minutes ago, Athens, Greece.

 

 

[Warwick Hempleman]

Gorgeous! It's crystal clear here in Cologne. No photos from here, but it's been a delight to look at all evening.

[Walter Graff]

It was cloudy so I didn't get to see the accent on the horizon, but later on the clouds broke and man was it bright. I could clearly see my shadow. And when the clouds did obscure it, the entire sky looked like a scene out of war of the worlds with portions of clouds glowing. A real beautiful site to see.

[Ira Ratner]

A few weeks ago, maybe a bit more, we had the harvest moon.

 

I just caught it by accident early in the morning, but isn't that when the moon's supposed to be the biggest and brightest--which is why the farmers would use that night to harvest?

 

And damn-I forgot to look last night.

[Walter Graff]

A few weeks ago, maybe a bit more, we had the harvest moon.

 

I just caught it by accident early in the morning, but isn't that when the moon's supposed to be the biggest and brightest--which is why the farmers would use that night to harvest?

 

And damn-I forgot to look last night.

 

The harvest moon simply means the full moon that occurs nearest to the autumnal equinox. It is not necessarily bigger or brighter then. It's more a sign of the change of seasons that comes with the folklore that farmers use it to gather their last crop. The moon is truly bigger and brighter now because the moon is at perigee and is the closest to the earth in it's elliptical cycle around the earth.

[Ira Ratner]

DANG! WHY DIDN''T I LOOK LAST NIGHT!?

 

That picture from Greece shows some interesting details.

[Walter Graff]

DANG! WHY DIDN''T I LOOK LAST NIGHT!?

 

That picture from Greece shows some interesting details.

 

So look tonight. Yesterday was technically the full moon but tonight it will be just as bright and just as big, just not completely full.

[Matthew Buick]

I tried taking a picture, but same problem as Serge I'm afraid. Cloud. :(

[Ira Ratner]

So look tonight. Yesterday was technically the full moon but tonight it will be just as bright and just as big, just not completely full.

 

What about tonight?

 

I forgot again.

[Mike Zelazny]

The full moon above my apartment, Bellefonte, PA. CU to come in next post.

[Mike Zelazny]

Moon Close up as the clouds dispersed.

Taken with Nikon D40 with Quantary 70-300 1:4-5.6 Tele-Macro lens

[Jamie Metzger]

FYI, when taking close up pics of the moon, if you can, wait till it's overhead, or as close to being overhead as possible. There is less atmosphere and pollution in your way, and you are "shooting" a more direct distance.

[Saul Rodgar]

FYI, when taking close up pics of the moon, if you can, wait till it's overhead, or as close to being overhead as possible. There is less atmosphere and pollution in your way, and you are "shooting" a more direct distance.

 

Unfortunately, that is also when it appears smaller in the sky, forcing for longer lens use.

 

Anyway, it was cloudy and snowing here so I couldn't even see it.

[Walter Graff]

Bad news Saul. You fell for what is a myth. The moon is ALWAYS the same size whether it be on the horizon or at it's zenith. Quick way to have fun is to watch a moon rise. Notice how big it is. Now take out your cell phone and snap a shot. Wait! The moon is suddenly much smaller in the photo. That is because the camera shows you the moon the way it really is. It is nothing more than an optical illusion that the moon appears bigger on the horizon. It isn't. And it is not due to a physical or atmospheric effect. The moon is always about 1 degree in size anywhere in the sky. In fact the moon actually appears ever so slightly smaller on the horizon than at its apex due to a a physical illusion caused by the eye and the atmosphere, but that is not normally measurable with the eye alone. Any way you slice it, it's still the same size. Take out a ruler and measure it on the horizon then at its high point in the sky... same size. :)

[Walter Graff]

Here's a great trick to try. It allows you to see the subtle colors of the moon that are all but lost from earth. Too bad. How cool would it be to see the moon this way. But then again after a thousand years of seeing it in color someone would take a black and white of it and we'd say "How cool would it be if the moon were all shades of grey". Even cooler, I owuld have liked ot have been around when the moon formed. It was only 14000 miles from the earth. Now it's 280,000 miles away and moving away from us with each rotaiton at about 1.5 inches. Anyway I tried this last year and have a fantaqstic 36x36 on my wall.

 

 

http://www.colormoon.pt.to/

[K Borowski]

Here's a great trick to try. It allows you to see the subtle colors of the moon that are all but lost from earth. Too bad. How cool would it be to see the moon this way. But then again after a thousand years of seeing it in color someone would take a black and white of it and we'd say "How cool would it be if the moon were all shades of grey". Even cooler, I owuld have liked ot have been around when the moon formed. It was only 14000 miles from the earth. Now it's 280,000 miles away and moving away from us with each rotaiton at about 1.5 inches. Anyway I tried this last year and have a fantaqstic 36x36 on my wall.

 

 

http://www.colormoon.pt.to/

 

I always heard it was even slower, 1-1/2" per year. Even that sounds short, 1.6 million years. Isn't the moon older than that? Maybe it is moving away from the Earth at a quicker and quicker rate.

 

You really shouldn't be griping about the difficulty in getting a big photo of the moon. I've seen a 150-year old photo (moon was only 25 feet closer then), where they had to track the moon because hte exposure was so long and it looks better than just about any modern moon photo I've seen, at least any amateur photo I've seen.

[Walter Graff]

I always heard it was even slower, 1-1/2" per year. Even that sounds short, 1.6 million years. Isn't the moon older than that? Maybe it is moving away from the Earth at a quicker and quicker rate.

 

 

That is what I said, it currently moves away at about 1.5 inches per year (3.8 centimeters). That rate has not always been constant. Actually the Moon's movement away from Earth has varied a lot over time The pull and push of both affects everything. The earth for instance is slowing in its rotation due to the moons pull. As the moon pulls on the tidal band of the earth it causes us to move slower which intern cause the moon to move away further, but actual causes it to move slower too. Tides and hte earth are really more like an egg than higher water levels. We are more the yoke and the water the stuff aorund us. In other words, high tide is the pull of the earth but the water wants to stay where it is so gets higher as the moon pulls on the earth which moves in this liquid shell. But fear not the moon will still be here in all it's glory and just as bright 500 million years from now at this rate. And you can thank the tides on earth for only allowing us to see one side of the moon too. One hundred years in the future the earth day will be 2 mil shorter than it is today. Set your clocks! And if the moon never existed, our day on earth would be around 6 hours as we'd be spinning far faster than we do now. But we might not be here as the entire evolution of the earth has happened specifically because of the moon. A hurricane without the moon might see winds of 600 mph and above. Would make Katrina look like a breeze on a tropical island. And yes the rate at which the moon moves away from the earth has changed over time, hence why you can't simply do the math and find out the age of the moon. Since we think the moon was formed by a collision on earth, a simple formula wouldn't work anyway. We are guessing the moon is about 4.5 billion years old, but technically we do not know exactly when it formed.

"I've seen a 150-year old photo (moon was only 25 feet closer then)"

 

Just to say it again, the moon is indeed moving farther away from us but in any one year it is sometimes far closer in one part of the year than it is in another. Hence the recent closeness. 150 years ago people enjoyed the same differences in distance due to the moons elliptical path around the earth. So while technically the moon was closer 150 years ago it's varied path around the earth sometimes saw it as close as it gets today.