Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The "great full moon" is a combination of events of which only a repeatable few will be photographic in nature. December 22 will, of course, be the longest night of the year for the northern hemisphere and there will be a full moon. This combination occurs every three decades or so. The full moon, however, will be at its perigee (closest point to earth for the year) as well. This combination last occurred in 1866 and then the moon was not at its closest point for the year, just the month. This is the kind of event that, in more primitive days, would have us sacrificing the nearest non-Leica photographer to propitiate the gods. Wait! There is more! This event is within a few days of the maximum tilt of the axis of the earth to the sun. Tides will be just a few inches higher and lower than normal, exposing seabed or covering shoreline that it is normally not effected by the tides. Why throw in a low pressure system and watch everybody forget all about Y2K. The moon will only be 14% bigger than at its apogee on December 8, so do not expect to fill the frame with your 21mm (or any other M lens). So what does all this mean? It will be a long night to photograph a slightly larger moon well inland! All this was cheerfully plagiarized from the December issue of Discover. John Collier >>Tom Schofield wrote: >> I am planning to goup to Yosemite on 12-22-99 to take pictures and witness >> the infamous Great Full Moon. > Marc wrote: > Hmm. There really is no "Great Full Moon". This phenomena happens a > couple of times each year, it turns out.