Super Moon

I was spending the evening photographing Tasmanian Devils when I noticed this massive moon in the sky.  It was brighter and larger than normal.  It was only then that I remembered that tonight was the night when the moon was in super perigee phase.

LEFT:  An exceptionally bright moon set against a pitch black sky (Canon 700mm & 1D-MKIV - 1/125 @ f9 - no cropping)

A moon in super perigee phase is the closest distance that the moon is to the earth.  Therefore, it is brighter & larger.  The moon was only visible for a short time due to cloud cover.  Pity, as it would have been nice to obtain a foreground subject with the moon in the background.

Still, it was a nice evening without urban light pollution to witness an astronomical event that occurs rarely.  The last super moon was in 1993 and the next event will be in 2029. 

Set your calendars!

Stars and the Night Sky, South Pacific

Stars & Night Sky

One aspect of the south Pacific, and indeed much of Australia is the definite lack of light pollution.  The sky looks dark to the horizon...

LEFT:  Night sky, stars and Milky Way, Kingdom of Tonga

Much of the United States and Europe suffers from excess light pollution making the night sky and stars very difficult to see.  Another hurdle in the U.S. is trying to find a dark sky without aerial traffic!  I can remember when in Yosemite National Park (California) in the High Seirras photographing the night sky, it was a challenge to not phtoograph the contrail or red light of an aircraft flying overhead.  The airways in the US are so busy that it's almost impossible to watch the night sky for any length of time and not see the lights from a commerical or military flight.  This makes the south pacific an ideal location to photograph stars, star trails and other astronomic events.