A full harvest moon in conjunction with a penumbral lunar eclipse was just too good an opportunity to miss from a time lapse photography point of view.
This particular astronomical event occured at sunset on Friday 16th September 2016, so I did a fair bit of planning beforehand on possible locations to photograph the moonrise.
I didn't just want to film the moon, I wanted the moon to be set against an interesting foreground which, given the moon's brightness, meant a well lit town.
Llandudno, on the North Wales coast, proved to be the optimum spot, and with a high vantage point overlooking the town and famous Victorian pier I was all set for the big event.
In order to capture both a close up of the moon, and wider view of the moon over the town and sea, I used two DSLR cameras set up on tripods next to each other.
One camera was fitted with my 100-400mm zoom lens to get a close up of the moon, and the other was fitted with my 24-105mm zoom lens to give me the wider field of view.
Controlling two cameras at once proved challenging, but I managed to get two sequences of still images which I was able to edit together to make this video.
The one thing I had no control over was the weather, and for a while, leading up to moonrise, it looked like the whole shoot would be a washout as heavy cloud covered the skies to the east where the moon was set to appear.
But in the end the clouds moved away at just the right moment as the yellow moon, in its penumbral eclipse, appeared over the top of the Little Orme on the far side of Llandudno Bay.
So for the next two hours I watched and filmed, entranced as the moon rose in the sky, playing hide and seek with the passing clouds as the lights of Llandudno and the pier appeared below me.
The sea also played a part, reflecting a path of glowing light whenever the moon appeared from behind the clouds.
All in all, a wonderful night of watching a dramatic celestial event and having everything work - that combination doesn't happen often!
Filename - llandudno moonrise timelapse 01.mp4
Camera (1st sequence)- Canon 5D
Camera (2nd sequence) - Canon 6D
Lens (1st sequence)- 100-400mm zoom @180mm
Lens (2nd sequence)- 24-105mm zoom @47mm
Exposure (1st sequence)
1/4 sec, f5.6, ISO100
Exposure (2nd sequence)
1/4 sec to 6 secs, f4, ISO100 to ISO160
Filters - None
Time between exposures - 6 secs
Location - Llandudno, North Wales coast
This clip - HD 720p
Clip duration - 31 secs
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.