Snap the moon’s portrait tonight

Sharp as honed knife. That was last night’s moon. I grabbed a couple photos of it posing pretty with a sculpture on the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus and then took off for the countryside to commune with the mosquitos while … Continue reading →

A 2-day-old lunar crescent floats above the Wild Ricing Moon sculpture on the UMD campus Thursday night. Details: 400mm lens at f/6.3, 1/100-second, ISO 400. Photo: Bob King
Sharp as honed knife. That was last night’s moon. I grabbed a couple photos of it posing pretty with a sculpture on the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus and then took off for the countryside to commune with the mosquitos while waiting for the sky to grow dark enough to see the planet Mercury. I finally spotted it 50 minutes after sunset shining faintly to the moon’s north.
Tonight the moon will still be an inviting crescent just three days old and barely out of the cradle. Even a cellphone camera will be adequate to frame a scene with the moon during twilight. There’s enough light at dusk for cameras to autofocus on distant objects like the moon and allow photos without blur from vibration or shaking.
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