Tangerine Moon

Tonight is the Full Moon. And more than that: because of the geometry of the Moon's orbit, tonight is the lowest Full Moon - the lowest possible, I believe.

This means that tonight's Moon will never rise high above the Southern horizon. With mid-summer moisture in the air and lots of smoke particles from the wildfires out West suspended in the atmosphere, this means that the Moon is robed in an orange haze tonight as its light tries to pierce the thick layers of the atmosphere and get to my eyes - or in this case, the lens of my Nikon Coolpix L4.

The Moon, July 18, 2008, 10:28 PM

Dull as it was, the light was still overwhelming to the imager in ISO-speed format, when the lens remains open long enough to let what the camera judges to be an adequate amount of light fall on the charge-coupled device that records the image. So I had to do my usual trick of putting the camera in Sports mode. This results in a lower-resolution image taken at a faster shutter speed.

To get the image I needed to rest the camera on a stable platform. But the Moon was just so ridiculously low, my usual platforms - car roofs and the arms of Adirondack chairs - would not work. So I had to resort to extreme measures, and rest the miniature tabletop tripod on the ground. Good thing the grass isn't high enough to block the lens.

Hazy Moon and unidentified star

If you missed it, it's not too late. The Moon will be very low in the South for the next few nights, though you'll have to stay up later and later to see it!