David's Images of the Day Photoblog
I woke up at 03:00 (still trying to figure out what time zone I am in) and noticed the sky was pretty clear and the full moon was bright. I tried several cameras, and got the best image of the moon with the Nikon D810a camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens. Later on during the day, more birds at the bird feeder.
Everyone had to be back on the ship by 22:00. We remained docked in Yangon and didn’t depart until the following day which was a class day. The moon was full (or nearly full) so I had the opportunity to take pictures of folks appearing to be looking at or holding the moon. I stood back some distance, and used a telephoto lens so the size of the moon would appear to be relatively large. What I wasn’t able to do was have both the person and the moon to be in focus, so the images are composites. The low light also required that I increase the ISO to 6400 for the images.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.
There has been a lot of media hype over the full moon that would be visible tonight (weather permitting). It is the second full moon in January, so it is a “blue moon”. It is closer to earth at this point in its orbit around the earth so it is a “super moon”. And finally, there will be a lunar eclipse, so a “red” or “blood” moon. Yesterday had been rain, snow, and rain so I wasn’t expecting to even be able to see the moon. As I was going to bed around midnight, I noticed that it was very bright out. I could see the moon directly out my window since it was so high in the sky. So I ended up having to go outside to see it. It was bitterly cold and windy, but the moon was visible. I wasn’t going to stay out very long, and didn’t want to set up a tripod — so the first image was taken hand-held looking almost straight up. I woke up again at 06:00 to see if any of the eclipse would be visible. Here in New Jersey, it would only be visible just before sunrise. The only view I got was one where the moon was going behind the trees. One note that the media forgot to mention, there will not be a full moon in February.
Backyard Autumn Night Sky — Full Moon
The bright full moon woke up at 03:30 AM. The sky was crystal clear. I got up and took images of the moon with six different camera/lens combinations. All were shot on a tripod, with mirror up delay to minimize vibration.
(1) Nikon D810a camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/16, 1/125 sec).
(2) Nikon D3x camera and 600 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec).
(3) Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/16, 1/250 sec).
(4) Nikon 1 V3 camera and 70-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/16, 1/200 sec).
(5) Nikon D800 camera and 400 mm f/4 VR lens (ISO 100, 500 mm, f/5.6, 1/800 sec).
(6) Nikon D800 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens + TC-E 20 II teleconverter (ISO 100, 1000 mm, f/8, 1/250 sec).
The images were cropped so they would be the same size. I like (1) and (2) the best, but am interested in comments.
