I just happened to notice the big full moon rising the other evening, and decided to grab my camera. After all these years, I'm still a sucker for a beautiful moon!
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| Moonrise, partially obscured by the neighbor's palm tree. |
Seeing this pretty moon kind of motivated me, and I decided to check on details for the next morning's moonset. Turns out it was 7am, so I decided to check it out. There's a hiking trail that takes you up to a nice lookout of downtown LA. Based on the predicted compass reading for the moonset, I guestimated that I might be able to get the LA skyline and moon in the same shot.
After hiking in the dark for about 20 minutes, I came to my lookout. Luck was with me, and the moon was slowly descending on downtown LA. This first attempt was at 6:34am. The moon was still pretty high, but I was able to get both the moon and downtown LA in the same frame, so I started shooting. I love how the buildings of LA look in the early morning hours. Kind of bittersweet knowing all the distruction and loss from the fires. I could see no fire or smoke plumes from my vantage point, so hopefully that's good news. 6:38AM. Just 4 minutes after the previous photo. Seems like the lower the moon gets on the horizon, the faster it drops! By the way, all photos here are single images. No composite photos, AI, or other trickery. I used a 200mm-400mm telephoto lens with a monopod.  |
| 6:50am |
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| 6:55am |
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| 7:00am |
As the moon was setting behind Los Angeles off to the west, the sun was getting ready to burst out from behind Saddleback Mountain in the east. 7:07am. The moon has just dropped below the horizon, and the sun has just started to rise. You can see sunlight reflected off a couple of the glass buildings in downtown LA, about 20 miles from where I'm standing. Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you had a chance to see the Wolf Moon!
...another moon that I slept through!
ReplyDeleteWonderful moon shots, Peter.
ReplyDeleteOverhere it was too clouded to see the full moon.
Wow! Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI too stumbled on the full moon here after many days of cloud and rain. I took several images but none so impressive as these. Looking at yours, one can't imagine the devastation of the fires.
Hi Peter, your shots are masterpieces!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog. I wonder if I can linkup a post of mine with a very interesting moon: https://traitaliaefinlandia.com/2025/01/08/luna-e-saturno/
Happy New Year! 💫
I think the moon seems to be moving more quickly because you have landmarks with which to measure it. It's like how it looks bigger when it gets closer to the horizon. Landmarks.
ReplyDeleteGreat shots. I can never get good pics of the moon. Of course, I don't have more than point and shoot cameras, either.
That moon capture at 7:00 is spectacular! I was photographing the moon too. It really was a beauty. My photo is just from cell phone, not near as lovely as yours.
ReplyDeleteWe haven’t had a clear sky all month. Thanks for sharing! Love that second photo especially.
ReplyDeletewoah! the 7am moon is soooo big! awesome pictures!
ReplyDeleteIt's been relatively cloudy here in cold Illinois. At least at the prime times. I miss the times when I photographed the moon, but my telephone lens (up to 300mm) doesn't seem to capture as great of detail as you. So it is good to experience this through your eyes. :-) I love to see the low moons when they're not as bright, but much bigger looking.
ReplyDeleteOOPS! Posted as anonymous. It's been relatively cloudy here in cold Illinois. At least at the prime times. I miss the times when I photographed the moon, but my telephone lens (up to 300mm) doesn't seem to capture as great of detail as you. So it is good to experience this through your eyes. :-) I love to see the low moons when they're not as bright, but much bigger looking.
ReplyDelete