One Step Closer

Tonight I got one step closer to achieving the lunar image I desire from Rivington Pike.  My aim is to take a photograph of the full moon rising from behind the pike, with the Pike Tower on top being silhouetted against a large, bright moon.

I've tried a couple of times now and got it wrong on both occasions - however I learnt valuable things in doing so, and the most important thing is finding the right location from where to take the shot.  This may seem obvious, but it's nothing like as easy as it seems!

I used an iPhone app called PhotoPills to plan the shoot, because it tells me where and the moon will be rising each day and gives me an indication for the line of sight from where i will be able to see it.  Of course, it's not perfect as it can't foresee a stand of large trees or a mobile phone mast being in the way.

So armed with a few ideas, I drove up to Rivington at around 9:30pm to get set up and wait for the moon to rise at 11:13pm.  At this time of year it doesn't go completely dark and so, even with no street lighting or significant other lights, it's quite easy to see even in reasonably remote locations.

My first mistake was to realise that although the moon rises at a certain time, the times are for rising above the horizon -  being in the low west Pennine hills, there's no horizon in sight, and it takes much longer for it to appear above the hill tops. So I had another hour or so to wait after the time indicated.

During this waiting time the clouds came and went - at some point I could see stars and the Plough constellation and at other times I couldn't see anything.  The International Space Station passed overhead at around 10pm, but I was set up for the moon, so I didn't attempt to photograph it.

My second mistake was not to bring a torch because, even though I could see where I was standing and walking, finding the camera controls in the dark can be fiddly. I usually have a head torch with me but for some reason I didn't think to bring one tonight.

I took some test shots of the Pike Tower before it got near moonrise time and then waited, and waited, and waited. I actually started to wonder if it was so cloudy in the east that the moon had risen but I couldn't see it. 

Meanwhile, cars were whizzing by me at a fairly constant rate (it's the only road in this area), probably wondering what this lunatic (ged'dit?) was doing.  With my car up a slight verge at the entrance to a farm gate, I must have looked as if I had broken down, but only two cars stopped to see if I was OK, one of which held three beautiful young ladies (they looked like models), who asked me what I was doing and who were very interested to learn when I explained. Ah, if only I was 30 years younger!

Eventually the full moon did appear through hazy clouds, lighting up a patch of sky with an errie glow. It was a little more to the right of the Pike Tower than I wanted and so I lifted the tripod with the camera on it and walked further up the road.  The moon rises pretty quickly and by the time I'd got setup in a new location, it was higher in the sky. It was also much cloudier and so there was no chance of a decent shot tonight.

Never mind I thought, there's a full moon every month, although not a Supermoon like this one.  I was pleased to have got to my best location yet and now that I've found this, I can pop out again when the weather is better and I'm sure I'll eventually get the shot I want.