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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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Zakim Bridge


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Comments

By adonovan on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 12:42pm.

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.

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By Saul on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 1:42pm.

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...

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By Eighthman on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 1:55pm.

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.

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By Saul on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 2:00pm.

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.

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By Eighthman on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 1:49pm.

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.

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By anon on Thu, 03/24/2011 - 2:29pm.

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.

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By Eighthman on Thu, 03/31/2011 - 11:47am.

Dennis come out from under Sky & Telescope magazine deadlines to provide details of the photo:

The shots were made with a Nikon D700 camera set at ISO 200. The “lens” was a Tele Vue NP-101 refracting telescope. In telescope jargon it’s a 101-mm (4-inch) aperture f/5.4 apo refractor, but a photographer would better appreciate it as a very sharp (it was built to image stars!) 540-mm f/5.4 “telephoto” lens. I used a handful of the D700’s features – live focus, shutter delay, auto-bracketing, matrix metering, auto white balance, being a few. And to the horror of some photographers, I wasn’t shooting in RAW mode, though in hindsight this might have been one of those rare times it would have been wise to do so. I figure I wouldn’t live long enough to download and archive my photography if I shot everything in RAW!

I have several favored locations for shooting astronomical events above the Boston skyline (ask me about my panoramas shot from the same location (with the same lens!) 30 years apart), but it was a rather last-minute decision to use Prospect Hill in Waltham, This location has several spots with views of the city skyline – I was at the one at the base of the radio tower. Since the road up Prospect Hill is gated in the winter, I walked from the parking lot. While I have the ability to calculate the precise location of the rising Sun and Moon from a give spot, the last-minute nature of this photo ruled that out. I did know that the Moon would rise behind the “interesting” part of the skyline, but not exactly behind which features. The Logan Airport control tower and Zakim Bridge were a bonus!

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By Eighthman on Sat, 04/02/2011 - 10:39am.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/1190...

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