I think that tonight is officially the “super moon,” but the weather forecasters predict that it will be cloudy. Knowing this, I went out last night (and again this morning) to get some shots of the almost super moon.
I learned a couple of things from this experience. First, it’s not too hard to get shots of the moon in the sky. If I am going to be shooting the moon with any regularity, I need to scout out some locations so that I can get shots of the moon rising over the mountains or over the water.
Secondly, I learned that the visible features on the moon change their apparent positions over the course of a single night. If I had had any basic lessons in astronomy, I would probably have known this already, but this revelation came to me when I was comparing the shots that I took last night with those that I took this morning. I took the first shot below at 8:02 pm (20:02 hrs) last night and the second shot at 5:38 this morning. When you compare the photos, you can see that distinctive land features are in different locations.
Moon at 8:02 in the evening of 13 November 2016
Moon at 5:38 in the morning of 14 November 2016
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Great shots Mike. The movement is quite noticeable.
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Did you use a tripod? What settings did you use? How long was the exposure?
I shot both of these handheld with my Canon 50D at 600mm on my Tamron 150-600mm lens in manual mode. The first one was at ISO 160, f/10, and 1/500 sec. The second one was ISO 100, f/7.1, and 1/800 sec.
Incredible shots! I am stunned and impressed that you managed to capture the moon in such clarity all handheld.
Thanks, Laura. I have used my long telephoto zoom lens a lot and continue to be impressed by its performance, including at the far end. I cropped a bit to put the shots into a square format, but it was pretty amazing to see how much the moon was able to fill a pretty good amount of the frame..
great shots, we went out last night and got cloud, just cloud! 😦 will try again
Since the Full Moon rises in the eastern sky around the same time the Sun sets in the western sky, you could set up your camera on the east-facing observation platform at the end of the Hike-Bike Trail — as you know, that platform overlooks the central wetland area.
That sounds like a good idea…I might have to try that with one of the future full moons. It looks pretty cloudy today.
Nice work, Mike. I see that you had good luck with the clouds too, especially since you were predicted to have some in the way.
Thanks, Gary. As I noted in the posting, I need to scout some sights so I can do full moon shots with an interesting background. One of my friends did some shots of the moon rising out of the water in Annapolis, for example.