Supermoon 2012
 

SUPERMOON
On Saturday, the moon will be up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons of 2012, according to NASA.
That's because it will reach perigee, its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, at 11:34 p.m. ET and become full just a minute later.

It should be a gorgeous display if the weather cooperates. The moon will appear largest and most dazzling when it's near the horizon, as seen in this photo gallery showing last year's super moon.

So get your tripod out, figure out the best lunar exposure, and snap away!

Full Flower Moon – May In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.

Thanks, I just saw this on the news and am so glad I'm on the lake when it happens.

Moon rise will be approximately 7:40 and at about 115° on the compass.
Sunset is about 7:50. A little ambient light means you can capture some foreground.

www.ThePhotographersEphemeris.com

Thanks for the links. It's really hard to figure out those weird exposures you need sometimes.

That site has no suggested camera exposure settings.

I am told that light on the moon is similar exposure to daylight on earth. Assuming that is what one desires, only the moon in the image...
Personally, I like to include ambient light in foreground instead of silluettes.
Therefore, an incident light meter reading usually is best to use, but a spot reflected reading off one's foreground can be used. However, bracket exposures.

Size comparison
 

8:08 pm..ri
 

NO Moon here. It's cloudy. :look: NB

It was a challenge!
 

I did manage a few decent shots out of over 100 I tried. The setting sun and rising moon made it "interesting" to say the least.

I set up on Big Pier at Lake Shore Park. These are two sequential shots, literally less than 1 minuet apart. I literally just turned the tripod 180 degrees, made a couple of setting adjustments and "snapped'

Sunset in the West

Attachment 6114

Moon Rise in the East

Attachment 6115

I took somewhere about 150 pics over the next 45 minuets, here are a few of the "keepers"

Attachment 6116

Attachment 6117

Attachment 6118

I'll be back at it tonight..

What were your camera settings?
 

SteveA,
I tried and tried to get pictures with detail of the moon surface and failed! I don' think I have as narrow an FOV lens as you, but even with manual settings I couldn't do it?

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Mike

It is a challenge, I tend to shoot lots of pictures, with lots of different settings. What "works" changes as the sky changes. I'd be happy to send you the original files that contain all of the information about the individual pictures specific settings.

Send me an email via Private Message with an email address and I'll send you the pictures. If you don't know, you can always "Right Click" on an image and read the embedded data that contains the information, some sites, including Winni.com, remove that data when you post pictures for privacy reasons. ( IMHO, a very good idea)

Here is a snip of the "data" ( This is from the 2nd picture above)

Attachment 6120

The ISO is very high, which would make a very "Grainy" picture if I tried to blow it up, as you can clearly see in the photo.

The picture just below it, (the third picture) was shot at f/11, 1/5th of a second, ISO 100 and 300 MM Focal length.
The slower shutter speed (1/5th of a second) allowed using the much less grainy ISO - 100. The negative of that
slow a shutter is that you would likely need a tripod, or something to set the camera on to avoid the shot being blurry.