Cold Moon Setting with Mars over Big Ben

alan72

alan72

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Alan
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Thursday morning I wanted to get the moonset. I only knew about the occultation with mars fairly last minute and although I did shoot a few frames of the moon and mars close together I wanted to try and include something with a foreground.

So I hopped on the firstr train and went into London. I've wondered about moonrise / set over Westminster before and it lined up nicely at the right time.

So this is my take on the Mars occulation and moonset over big ben. A cracking if bl**dy cold morning and very enjoyable to watch!!

Taken with a 5D mkiv and sigma 120-400mm lens, tripod mounted. 400mm for the close up, 170 and 200mm for the others. The first two images are an exposure blend of 2 images, 1 each for the clock tower and for the moon. This was still 30-40 minutes before sunrise and the dynamic range was too much. But this is an accurate representation of what I actually saw, the human eye is an amazing thing to see such a range!

moon---mars---westminster by Alan, on Flickr

cold moon by big ben by Alan, on Flickr

westminster moonset by Alan, on Flickr
 
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Excellent work ;)
 
"Excellent" set or captures Alan, of this famous landmark.
 
alan72 said:
This was still 30-40 minutes before sunrise and the dynamic range was too much.
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Very nice effort. 30-40min is generally too far not only for camera sensors but obviously also prints and screens so considering you've done a great job and well done for not darkening the moon to a mid-grey disc like you see all over the place.
I'm just curious if there is a more distance vantage point maybe from some tall building or a hill where you can take it with 400-600 or even 800mm lens and have it closer to sunrise and sunset. I don't go near london these days for it costs me nearly cheaper to go to Chamonix from Cotswolds!
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Very nice effort. 30-40min is generally too far not only for camera sensors but obviously also prints and screens so considering you've done a great job and well done for not darkening the moon to a mid-grey disc like you see all over the place.
I'm just curious if there is a more distance vantage point maybe from some tall building or a hill where you can take it with 400-600 or even 800mm lens and have it closer to sunrise and sunset. I don't go near london these days for it costs me nearly cheaper to go to Chamonix from Cotswolds!
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There are spots further out in the suburbs, Richmond park, a road in wimbledon, Primrose Hill park, and others where you can get a line to the city centre and the tall buildings. I think the challenge for Big Ben is it isn’t that tall at 96m. I haven’t been able to see a spot where you can get a line, and there are quite a few tall buildings on the south side of the river in that area. Access to said tall buildings is pretty difficult to get!
 
Great work & EFFORT Alan. Esp the last one which is my favourite. I sometimes see the moon low at nice times of the day, look & love, but I know I just don't have the lens to do it justice.

I was leaving work..... wednesday? .... & the moon was about 30 minutes after rising around 4pm & it was low, yellow, & right in the beautiful pink band of Venus!! :love::love:
 
LeeRatters said:
Great work & EFFORT Alan. Esp the last one which is my favourite. I sometimes see the moon low at nice times of the day, look & love, but I know I just don't have the lens to do it justice.

I was leaving work..... wednesday? .... & the moon was about 30 minutes after rising around 4pm & it was low, yellow, & right in the beautiful pink band of Venus!! :love::love:
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Thanks Lee, yes I saw it weds evening as I was picking up the kids and it did look fabulous. I sometimes get lens envy for people with 600mm etc. I have. a 130-400 but I am really happy with many of my shots I have taken at even 200mm.
 
Great set of images. Love the way, using Big Ben as foreground works, as well as highlighting the time difference between the images.
 
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