March 8, 2012
Moon Rise in Valley Of Fire State Park, Nevada, and How to Photograph the Full Moon

I made this image of the moon rising in Valley Of Fire yesterday evening after my second PT (physical therapy) session. My first PT session on Monday worked my knee too hard and I haven't been able to walk on it since. The session yesterday was much easier on the knee, and I was able to use one crutch to move from a pulloff to the location where I made this image about 20 yds away — not bad for roadside photography.

The best time to make an image with the (nearly) full moon is within a few days before the full moon to get it rising in the east and within a few days after the full moon to get it setting in the west. At these times, the illumination of the moon is similar to the illumination of the land so you can expose normally and not have a blown out moon. The number of days before and after the full moon will determine how high up the moon will be. If you're photographing where the horizon isn't very high, one or two days before or after the full moon will place the moon near the horizon with plenty of light on the land. If you're photographing where the horizon is very high, like from a deep valley in the mountains, three to five days, or more, before or after the full moon will be required for the moon be above the horizon. This image was taken the day before the full moon shortly after the sun set.

Here are some tools to help you find out when the full moon will occur.

iDevice Apps

• Moonrise is a free iPhone and iPod Touch App that shows the moon rise and set time and phase. It's possible to cycle through the date or jump to any date.
• iEphemeris Lite is a free iDevice (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) App that shows the current moon data plus a glimpse of the next four major stages of the Moon's phase (new, 1st quarter, full, and 3rd quarter). This is a quick way to find the next full moon if that's what you want to photograph or the next new moon if you'd rather photograph star trails.
• The Photographer's Ephemeris (TPE) is a full-featured iDevice App (currently $8.99) that not only has sun and moon rise and set times, but shows where the sun and moon will rise and set and can be used to determine when the sun or moon will crest local geographic features. There is also a version for Android and a free desktop version for Macs and PCs.

Websites

• The Old Farmer's Almanac lets you create a calendar of upcoming full moons based on your location.
• GeoCoder lets you find the relevant sun, moon, and twilight information for a specific location and current date or optionally a range of dates.
• Sea and Sky provides a list of all major astronomical events for the year, including meteor showers.

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