Starship Asterisk*

Full Moon Silhouettes

Explanation: Have you ever watched the Moon rise? The slow rise of a nearly full moon over a clear horizon can be an impressive sight. One impressive moonrise was imaged in early 2013 over Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand. With detailed planning, an industrious astrophotographer placed a camera about two kilometers away and pointed it across the lookout to where the Moon would surely soon be making its nightly debut. The above single shot sequence is unedited and shown in real time -- it is not a time lapse. People on Mount Victoria Lookout can be seen in silhouette themselves admiring the dawn of Earth's largest satellite. Seeing a moonrise yourself is not difficult: it happens every day, although only half the time at night. Each day the Moon rises about fifty minutes later than the previous day, with a full moon always rising at sunset. A good time to see a moonrise will occur at sunset on Tuesday as the Moon's relative closeness to Earth during a full phase -- called a supermoon -- will cause it to appear slightly larger and brighter than usual.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

Turning off the muzak improves the experience.. To a hyperborean, like me, it looks alien with the moon upside down.

Always a pleasure to watch and re-watch this artful little beauty. Thanks again.

I enjoyed the music AND the visuals of the right-way-up (to an antipodean) moonrise! Thank you!

So in the southern hemisphere, the moon rises up and to the left, but in the northern hemisphere it's up and to the right , eh?

Mesmerising

Though did keep feeling that I was going to fall off the planet, as the moon was clearly upside down and going the wrong way.

Gee, that was nice!

I was surprised to see it rise on the right, but then I quickly remembered that it was shot from New Zealand.

I've visited the southern hemisphere 3 times, and each time the movement of celestial objects throws me for a loop until I stand up and start tracing geometries with my finger and/or tilt my head sideways.

...Seeing a moonrise yourself is not difficult: it happens every day...

That would be almost every day, right? Since each moon rise is 24 hours and 50 minutes after the previous, once per lunar cycle there will a day without a moonrise.

gcal wrote:

...Seeing a moonrise yourself is not difficult: it happens every day...

That would be almost every day, right? Since each moon rise is 24 hours and 50 minutes after the previous, once per lunar cycle there will a day without a moonrise.

The Moon is always rising somewhere on Earth. And that precise interval between moonrises is not constant for any location on Earth (the Moon's orbit is not perfectly regular). Not to mention that at the poles, for example, the Moon only rises once about every two weeks (and sets once about every two weeks after that).