Full Super Moon
by Geoffrey Ferguson
Title
Full Super Moon
Artist
Geoffrey Ferguson
Medium
Photograph - Black And White
Description
The moon's orbit around the earth is slightly elliptical, being about 30,000 miles closer to the earth at it's closest approach. If that happens on a full or new moon, it's termed a "Super Moon." NASA estimates that a full super moon is about 14% larger and 30% brighter than a full moon at its furthest point from the earth.
This photograph was made with a 2,000mm telephoto lens mounted to a digital camera on a tripod. As it turns out, even the slightest camera motion like opening and closing the shutter produced motion blurring at this extreme magnification. I avoided this by holding an opaque black card in front of the lens, opened the shutter and waited for 10 seconds to let the camera shake stop, then moved the card up and down to make a roughly 1 second exposure, and then closed the shutter. The result is a very sharp image of the moon, with craters, plains, and mountains clearly visible.
Whether super or not, the moon has influenced the earth and its inhabitants in profound ways. Tides are the most obvious, but many marine and terrestrial animal populations migrate, navigate, and even procreate in response to the lunar cycle. Humans seem to tend towards generally behaving more crazy than usual on full moons. Just ask anyone who works in a hospital emergency department!
Uploaded
November 27th, 2014
Embed
Share