Wednesday 5 August 2009

Moonrise into shadow

This evening's sunset was rather uninteresting without any high clouds to light up the sky, however, behind most of the tourists' backs to the east was an amazing sight - the full moon rising in the shadow of Mauna Kea. The three hikers coming down from the summit probably didn't realise that a few of us had spotted the the shadow and moon and that they would appear on a few photos!

To be honest, the view wasn't a surprise. We've recently had a lunar eclipse so the moon is still aligned closely with the sun and therefore a full moon should rise close to the antisolar point (the point in the sky opposite the sun), and that's exactly where Mauna Kea's shadow appears. The only thing I wasn't sure about was whether the moon would be close enough to the node to be in the shadow, and fortunately it was! On the bad side, however, I broke my tripod. Rats.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Stunning fotos!!! Wish I'd seen it firsthand.

Zuzana said...

Beautiful, the first picture gives me a feeling of geometry.;)