Locating the Moonrise for Landscape Photography

[MatthewGore]

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Of course, this works for the moonset, sunrise and sunset too, but that makes for an unruly title. Just taking photos of the moon alone is simple, of course, as long as you have the requisite equipment and maybe a basic understanding of exposure compensation.

But figuring out the exact time and position of moonrise in a particular landscape, especially one that you've never visited, is a little more tricky. I made this video after shooting the Super Moon last month... there were a dozen photographers out there at the same place, but all of them had their cameras pointed in the wrong direction at moonrise.

Hope this helps some of you from making the same mistake!

- Matthew Gore

[MatthewGore]

For what it's worth, most of this video is a tutorial about "The Photographer's Ephemeris", which is a free program, at least for your computers... the mobile version costs $5 or $9, depending on the version (Android, iOS, respectively).

[Mike_e]

Or you could get Google Sky Map on your phone and just scope it out.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...tardroid&hl=en

[MatthewGore]

Sky Map looks like a pretty cool app, but I don't think it would be very helpful in planning a photo trip, especially in an area that you've never been before. I mean, it looks like it's great for figuring out what's in the sky where you are, but not so great for figuring out where you'd need to be on the ground to have some object in the sky appear next to some other object on the ground.

Another cool app, though, is SunSurveyor, which has some similarities with TPE and Sky Map... with augmented reality. Again, more of a photography oriented program.

Sun Surveyor | Sun and Moon 3D Compass & Augmented Reality App for Android & iPhone (forthcoming iPad)

[Mike_e]

Originally Posted by MatthewGore

Sky Map looks like a pretty cool app, but I don't think it would be very helpful in planning a photo trip, especially in an area that you've never been before. I mean, it looks like it's great for figuring out what's in the sky where you are, but not so great for figuring out where you'd need to be on the ground to have some object in the sky appear next to some other object on the ground.

Another cool app, though, is SunSurveyor, which has some similarities with TPE and Sky Map... with augmented reality. Again, more of a photography oriented program.

Sun Surveyor | Sun and Moon 3D Compass & Augmented Reality App for Android & iPhone (forthcoming iPad)

Sorry I wasn't clear, With SkyMap you can tell where everything is from where you are standing even looking straight down through the earth. It's like the planet isn't there.

[JohnM100]

+1 for The Photographer's Ephemeris.

It takes quite a while to learn how to use it and how to plan the "I know the shot I want, what date will the sun/moon be in the right place to get it?" but it has allowed me to target places & dates and more importantly it has saved me some wasted trips as I could tell in advance that I wasn't going to get what I imagined.

John.

[wildmaven]

Oooooo, what a great tool and something for which I have been searching for a long time!

*dances*

[Geonerd]

That's pretty useful!

Other options include:
Astronomy Will also give you magic numbers for Sun and Moon, eclipses, printable tables, etc.

start [Skychart] A full-on Planetarium program that can show you where the planets, bright stars, etc. will be on any given night. (Non-trivial learning curve)

And of course Google Earth.

[sbutera]

Another +1 for The Photographer's Ephemeris. Excellent program. I've been using it to plan sunrise, sunset shots. Great tool.

[HWCapps]

Thank You,
I enjoyed that information