This month the full moon coincided closely with the moon's closest approach to the earth (perigee), resulting in a somewhat larger full moon than average. This has been played up by the popular press as a "super" moon.
Ordinarily I wouldn't be out when the full moon is up because most of the things I like to photograph are very dim objects which are overwhelmed by the moon's glare. But since I had my portable setup home in preparation for the upcoming annular eclipse (May 20), I decided to shoot the full moon, something I had not actually done in all these years of shooting the sky. For the rising moon shot, I went over to a nearby shopping mall's parking lot. One person joined me to photograph the moonrise with a camcorder and pocket camera, so I guess the word had gotten around to the general public.
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The second shot is a telescopic one taken a few hours later from my back yard, after the moon had risen higher into clear air. |