Rising Waning Crescent Moon over Mt. Hamilton

Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.


I rose early again this morning to meet 4 friends to try once more to photograph the rising Crescent Moon over Mt. Hamilton. Can you see it? You may have to click the photo once or twice to view larger. Though the sky was much clearer this morning of fog, low clouds, and haze we were competing with the later hour and approaching dawn. I couldn’t see it with my naked eye. Thankfully my camera did, and I was able to tease it out using Lightroom4.

We shot the sunrise shortly after this. I hope to post a photo from that later. I used my new Solar filter for it.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm@200mm+ Tamorn 1.4TC| |f11| 2 sec| ISO 800| Manual Mode| Tripod|

Full Moon Over James Lick Observatory

Copyright © 2010 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

This shoot was fun. We hiked out through some thick brush, and not much of a trail to get to this location.
Using TPE we got the angle and with a bit more math and thought we got the time right too.
I need to remember to buy bug spray and wipes they were eating me alive! We’re having a hot spell so the evening was gorgeous and warm. I didn’t need my wool sweater or jacket until the sun dropped.
I didn’t realize the little dome was open last night at all. It wasn’t until I uploaded my photos that I saw it open. It was only open for two frames then closed again.

Walking out of the location and back to our cars we were stopped by a Ranger who had been looking for us. Evidently we were parked in area that was closed after sunset. He told us he’d been looking for us for 45 minutes and he given all 3 cars citations despite our day passes and camping permit. He didn’t see our camping permit. We didn’t put it in the right spot. We left it on the dash of one car and it should have been dropped in a box at the entrance. We had been told we needed to buy a campsite, and a day pass per car two days prior to our going to shoot this by a Ranger.
Once we explained what the Ranger told us to do to be legal he said he’d remove the citations. What a relief that was!
I’m glad the group leader for this event called ahead to speak to a Ranger and made sure we would be legally in the park after sunset.

Nikon D300s
Nikkor 70-300mmVR