My Quasi Valentine's Lunar Special

On a sunny but wispy cloud filled day back in January of 2009 I managed to capture a heart shaped cloud next to the moon...


Shot @ 50mm 1/60s f/11 ISO100 ~4:12pm PST 01.03.2009

So here's the background story on this picture. It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon here in San Jose, CA and there were thin wispy bits of clouds and contrails slowly drifting all over the sky. The moon was in its waxing crescent phase crossing the afternoon sky. I set my HV30 up on a tripod trying to clear as many power lines as possible from my backyard view and let it shoot the moon at the widest angle so that I could later watch the concert of clouds dance with the moon.

I would go out every 20 minutes or so to check on cloud conditions and such but would usually go back inside once I was sure the moon wasn't going to leave the frame. On my 2nd or so trip out to check on my camera I was looking up in the sky and saw IT! It being this giant heart shaped cloud off the right(west) of the moon and high in the sky. AND IT LOOKED LIKE IT WAS GOING TO FLOAT BY THE MOON! I ran back inside and got my XTi setup with my Sigma 50-500mm "the Bigma" lens. I went back out by my video camera and setup for some hybrid still action.

Fortunately this giant heart shaped cloud DID pass by the moon as I guessed it would and I was able to capture just a few shots of it in that time. Even though the clouds were moving slowly I was rather inexperienced with capturing short lived moments then. I remember it seeming like it took me forever to get my tripod setup and leveled and trying to adjust focus properly. I do wish that I had done a better job framing the moon more to the right rather than in the center of the frame. But I was also really worried about chopping off any of the heart cloud off since I only had 50-500mm on a crop sensor body to work with. I wished I could go just a bit wider than 50mm with my Bigma. However the only wider lens I only owned then was the kit lens and never cared for the medium quality images it produces compared to the Bigma. So in the end I'm actually really satisfied with what I captured :)

Here's a link to a 20x sped up clip of the video I shot that afternoon. The heart shaped cloud comes into view at about the 1m20s point in this clip. The orientation of the video camera was extremely dutch to avoid power lines (which can be seen at the very bottom of video frame) so it won't match the stills which I do believe are proper level orientation.

Valentine Cloud & Moon from Lunarphile on Vimeo.

In addition here is the moon at 500mm taken just a minute before the heart cloud picture in this post. This was taken moments after the heart cloud passed over the moon and before the wispy bits of clouds came back in frame at 500mm.


Shot @ 500mm 1/60s f/11 ISO100 ~4:10pm PST 01.03.2009

The wispy cloud beauty continued throughout the afternoon. Here is one of the other shots I liked from that day.

Shot @ 50mm 1/60s f/11 ISO100 ~4:47pm PST 01.03.2009

I wish I had spent more time outside taking stills but was probably being lazy and playing video games inside or something and just left my video camera to capture the action for me. I'll consider posting a realtime or at least less sped up version of video with audio and maybe some hybrid still action next week when my Vimeo HD allotment for the week resets.

Pre-Eclipse Success

Wow, the past few days have been exciting and annoying. But most importantly I got to witness and capture this weekends partial lunar eclipse in near complete detail. And as an added bonus Saturday the 26th was also my birthday Weeeee!!!

Ok so let's back up to Friday evening, June 25th 2010. I went to my favorite moon rise shooting spot in east San Jose to catch the full moon rising over Mt Hamilton, actually the far south end of it since it rose at 122° azimuth, the same azimuth as on Thursday the 24th, but my attempts to precisely locate the rising position were thwarted by cloud cover as I mention in my previous blog entry. So I had to use the force and my guesstimate based upon catching the moon rise on Wednesday. I had a friend with me who let me borrow his Canon 5D mkII for the weekend to capture the eclipse on 2 cameras. I mounted his 5D to my Bigma 50-500mm lens at full extension to catch a wider view of the moon coming over the horizon. I used my 1000mm lens combo on my Canon T2i to get an extreme closeup view of the moon cresting the horizon.

Fortunately we got there a bit early because this was my first time using the 5D in over a year and I had totally forgotten how to record video with it and he had never shot video with it. Thankfully my memories of renting it back in the spring of 2009 came back to me after a few minutes of fiddling with controls. I must say that Canon really has done a great job with making video recording more user friendly on my T2i versus the legendary 5DmkII. I'm sure his body is still using the original firmware so I'll hold off making any further comments about how difficult it was to use that body.

The important thing is that I was all setup to get the shots I've wanted to get for the longest time. Dual video recordings of the moon coming over the horizon, one at 1600mm and another at 500mm. And it was stunning!!! Unfortunately I was so excited to be shooting video on two cameras and distracted by recalling how to shoot video with the 5D that I forgot to take any stills. Thankfully I was shooting HD so here are some still extracted from the video.

Here comes Luna!



Notice the extreme atmospheric distortion around the edges of the moon




And the moon is so RED due to the atmospheric distortion as well.



The distortion is still there but reduced as the moon inherits the dusky sky from the sun.


If you look at the bottom of the image there is a little black speck on the moon, that is a plane crossing that I didn't see until I got home and started editing the video footage :)


And here the moon is ready for a night of eclipse action.


So far everything was as I had hoped for and more. I was able to capture the extreme heat distorting effects of the atmosphere causing ripples and eddies along the edges of the moon with a reddish tint as it rose through the thin haze over the mountains in other wise clear skies. It was soon dark after the moon came over the horizon and we had to leave since my shooting location was closing.

I came home and consulted my array of WeatherUnderground tabs that gave me updates on weather conditions on cities in the Bay Area. While most every coastal city from San Francisco, to Half Moon Bay to Pescadero was experiencing cloudy or over cast conditions Santa Cruz seemed to be clear. I was excited to see this because I wanted to shoot the moon and the receding eclipse as it set into the Pacific ocean.

However around 10-11pm I went outside to get some stills of the moon from my backyard and got setup just in time to snap off a dozen shutter clicks before a nasty thick cloud cover came rolling in from the west.

I assumed this was the same fog and overcast clouds blowing in from the ocean that had blanketed all the coastal cities I wanted to shoot from. I went back inside to the disappointing weather update that indeed Santa Cruz was becoming cloud covered, not only ruining my plans of catching the moon descending into the ocean but also meaning I might miss the eclipse all together if everywhere within a 2 hour drive was going to be overtaken by thick overcast skies :(

I spent the next 2 hours searching for webcams in various cities like Santa Cruz and San Jose and checking satellite predictions for the 1-6am time frame of Saturday morning, all with very bad news that everywhere from north of San Francisco to south of Monterey and even as far east as Gilroy would be covered in overcast skies during the early morning hours. I honestly wanted to cry but remembered a friends suggestion that I go up Mt. Hamilton which overlooks San Jose and the surrounding Santa Clara county areas.

I started up the Google Earth app, multiple tabs of Google maps and weatherunderground and began to search for potential spots that would get me above the cloud cover that was rolling over the entire Bay Area. I knew it would be bad to go all the way up to Lick Obeservatory since drivers headlights interfere with observation there but also figured that going all the way up would be overkill. Thankfully wunderground.com gives great detailed stats on cloud conditions for each particular area it reports on, down to the individual communities and neighborhoods where weather stations are. I could see that in my area of far south San Jose that the cloud cover was at 1200ft above ground level and combined with the info that area of San Jose was 200ft above sea level I was able to calculate that I needed to be above 1400ft or about 430meters above sea level. Using Google Earth to find CA-130E/Mt Hamilton road I was able to locate several places around 600+meters above sea level that would point me in the right direction and hopefully be above the cloud cover to see at least some of the eclipse if not the peak moment.

I emailed myself directions to my phone and also printed directions and double checked that all my gear was in order and ready to go. I made and ate a tasty sandwich so I would have energy for what was to be a long night/morning. Then headed off to the eastern hills of San Jose hoping for a night of successful partial lunar eclipse shooting...

Ok time for a blogging break, full details about the eclipse in my next post :)

WOLF MOON: 12.27.2008 - 01.25.2009

The following is my summary of moon images from the WOLF cycle which occured between December 27, 2008 and January 25, 2009.

12.28.2008

~5:30pm - 2% illumination
This is one of the youngest moons in my catalog of images and one that I recall shooting with pleasure since these were semihandheld using a monopod to support my XTi and "BIGMA", ie the Sigma 50-500mm lens.

While these may not be the sharpest due to the challenge of handling such a large lens on a monopod I was pleased to capture Mercury and Jupiter following this 1+ day old waxing crescent over the horizon.

12.29.2008

~6:15pm - 6% illumination
This is one of my best attempts at capturing a young moon with my 1000mm lens setup.

12.30.2008

~ 5:55pm - 11% illumination
Another 1000mm lens capture also with some 500mm examples...

...and one including earthshine.

01.01.2009

~7:35pm - 27% illumination
Woohoo the first moon of 2009, a classic looking waxing crescent in 1000mm glory.


01.02.2009

~5:30pm - 35% illumination
Another waxing crescent soon after dusk gave way to the night sky

~8:50pm - 37% illumination
Just a few hours later and the moon is ready to lay down for its evening nap.

I managed to catch a shot of this in the sky,
...and reflected in a puddle of rain water.

01.03.2009

~4:20pm - 45% illumination
Oh now this is one of my favorite DAYS of moon shooting, I love seeing the moon in a see of bright blue and this waxing crescent/prehalf moon stands out well in the pre-sunset light.

~5:30pm - 46% illumination
I decided to follow this moon into the night and you can see how crater detail begins to really show once the sun has set.

~10:20pm - 48% illumination
5 hours later and the moon is ready for bed.

01.04.2009

~12:40pm - 54% illuminated
Some shots of the moon midday from a parking lot. I happened to have my camera on me but only with the kit lens so no telephoto glory, but I liked how I could position it around the rows of lights.

~11:15pm - 59% illuminated
Those clear blue skies from earlier gave way to murky cloud cover that almost ruined my chances at getting a shot that night. Luckily the haze was thin enough for me to use my 1000mm combo.

01.06.2009

~5:25pm - 77% illuminated
Waxing Gibbous with no cloud cover.

01.07.2009

~5:25pm - 86%
Even more Gibbous waxing the night away.

01.08.2009

~5:00pm - 93%
I <3 gibbous moons at dusk. Here I follow it into the night...

~2:40am - 96%
And again deep in the night when it has turned on its head ready to dive across the horizon.

01.09.2009

~5:00pm - 98%
I have many favorite moon phases, and the day before a full moon is high on the list. I enjoy watching a nearly full moon rise over the horizon while the sky is still blue and watching the sky as it changes from blue, to orange to black. I also tried unsuccessfully to capture a plane crossing the moon. The unfortunate bit is that I have since lost access to this shooting location so getting a shot like that will be even more difficult.


7:15pm - 98%
Here is the waxing gibbous prefull moon now that night has taken over.

01.10.2009

~5:30pm - 100%
Mmmm, full moon rising at dusk, I <3 the silhouetted trees
...and tried my best to capture the crazy orange glow from that evening.

~8:10pm - 100%
Hoowwwwwwwllllllllllll!!!!!

01.11.2009

~8:00pm - 98%
Waning gibbous at 1000mm

01.12.2009

9:30pm - 94%
Waning gibbous

01.13.2009

~11:45pm - 86%
Waning gibbous


01.14.2009

~11:20pm - 78%
Waning gibbous with and without a light cloud cover. This is one of my favorite/confounding/joyous/annoying things about
photographing the moon, especially in Northern California winters, cloud cover can come and go in minutes. Sometimes its a joy to have, other times it isn't like when the sky is completely overcast the entire night. Luckily this wasn't one of those bad nights.

01.15.2009

~4:10am - 66%
Waning gibbous

01.16.2009

~2:25am - 57%
Waning gibbous/prehalf moon

01.17.2009

~5:40am - 46%
Waning crescent/posthalf moon just before night gives way...
~7:50am - 45%
to a waning crescent after sunrise.

01.18.2009
~6:30am - 36%
Waning crescent before dawn, and the last of this month for me.

I hope you enjoyed them. Please let me know which moon was your favorite from this month. I'll write more about a particular day if there are enough requests.