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Last week's full moon ruined my best night of astrophotography in months
Tbh I planned this shoot for like 2 weeks, drove 40 minutes out to a dark spot near Bend, and got everything dialed in. Then the moon came up over the ridge and washed out the entire sky within an hour. I still got some decent shots of the moon itself but my target was the Orion Nebula and it might as well have been a flashlight behind a sheet. Has anyone else had a moonrise completely trash a planned session, or do you guys check moon phases before hauling gear out?
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angela8908d ago
The "flipped on me in an hour" part is what gets me. Moonrise doesn't wash out a whole sky at once, it moves in stages, and if you know your target's position you can grab the good frames in that first window before the glow climbs. Orion Nebula sits in the east, so it rises right around the same time the moon does some nights. That's the trap nobody plans for. A rising moon in the east nukes an eastern target way before it nukes the sky overall.
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