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Proof Boston is out of this world
By adamg on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:33am
NASA's Astronomy Photo of the Day today shows last week's Supermoon rising over the Zakim.
H/t Dan K.
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Amazing shot
That's just stunning. Great use of the atmospheric distortion to make the moon look huge.
However, I think the caption is wrong. There's no way this was taken from Waltham with that much detail and only a 180mm lens. It was probably shot from Prospect Hill in Somerville.
The Photographer's Ephemeris
The Photographer's Ephemeris shows that it indeed was taken from Waltham. Here is where the moon would have risen from Prospect Hill in Somerville --
http://twitpic.com/4ctj9c
The moon would be rising (light blue line) near the Tobin, but not behind the Zakim.
Here's the map for Prospect Hill, Waltham --
http://twitpic.com/4ctk14
You can see that the moon rose behind the Zakim and Northpoint in Cambridge.
(I was using The Photographer's Ephemeris to see where the moon would rise near me in Waltham, but I did not go to Prospect Hill Park.)
As for the focal length, it could be 180mm if the image was very cropped. By the way, where did you see a caption that showed the focal length?
Ah, I see that the EXIF data shows the details, that it was shot at f2.8. Perhaps it was taken with this lens --
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/EQ_TESTS/NIK...
Maybe not a telescope.
Yeah, he could have used a big lens and cropped in. Not sure what Nikon he's using these days. I sent him the link to here.
D700
The EXIF data shows it was taken with a D700.
It looks like this image is taken from about 1/4 of the total imaging area.
Not from Somerville
Prospect Hill in Somerville would put the azimuth too far south. Looking from Waltham, toward Logan, is pretty much due east. Where did you get a 180mm lens from? I'm sure Dennis (since I know him) used a telescope.
It appears as if it was shot
It appears as if it was shot with a camera on a telescope. Cropping has nothing to do with the size of moon. Telephoto lenses make the sun or moon look larger relative to earthly objects. The greater the focal length, the greater the effect. To get the size distortion that great, you'd need a very large telephoto lens.
Details, at last
Dennis come out from under Sky & Telescope magazine deadlines to provide details of the photo:
A bit more info
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/1190...