laser_jock99
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What is the earliest New Moon you can see or photograph?
Saturday (& Sunday) evening presents one of the best opertunities of the 2008 to photograph the moon a few hours old. It's difficult because the lunar crescent will be very thin and hard to spot in the evening twighlight. And, of course, as it gets darker the moon gets closer to the horizon setting about an hour & 20 minutes after the sun. The reason that March is favourable for this challenge is that the angle of the Ecliptic is steep to the horizon. This means the sun sets quickly rather than grazing the horizon like in summer.
This chart shows the scene at 6:00pm Saturday evening. Start looking for that elusive crescent about 15 minutes after sunset.
To aid you in this challenge you'll need the following:
1) A clear sky!
2) A vantage point with a clear view of the Western horizon
3) Binoculars will help pinpoint the moon
4) A 200mm+ lens (longer is better- but depends how much background scenery (if any) you want to include in the composition!)
5) Tripod.
6) The moon sets almost due West so a compass might help.
Here's some photo's I took at moon rise 6:00am this morning as a taster with a 400mm lens (croped). Saturdays moon will be much thinner than this.
Moon rising above horizon
Moon & passing jet
If you find Saturday's New Moon impossible to spot- then it should be much easier on Sunday evening! Good luck.
EDIT- another 33 hour old crescent moon photo (scanned slide from 1989) featuring the planet Venus and a nice bit of foreground detail.
Saturday (& Sunday) evening presents one of the best opertunities of the 2008 to photograph the moon a few hours old. It's difficult because the lunar crescent will be very thin and hard to spot in the evening twighlight. And, of course, as it gets darker the moon gets closer to the horizon setting about an hour & 20 minutes after the sun. The reason that March is favourable for this challenge is that the angle of the Ecliptic is steep to the horizon. This means the sun sets quickly rather than grazing the horizon like in summer.
This chart shows the scene at 6:00pm Saturday evening. Start looking for that elusive crescent about 15 minutes after sunset.
To aid you in this challenge you'll need the following:
1) A clear sky!
2) A vantage point with a clear view of the Western horizon
3) Binoculars will help pinpoint the moon
4) A 200mm+ lens (longer is better- but depends how much background scenery (if any) you want to include in the composition!)
5) Tripod.
6) The moon sets almost due West so a compass might help.
Here's some photo's I took at moon rise 6:00am this morning as a taster with a 400mm lens (croped). Saturdays moon will be much thinner than this.
Moon rising above horizon
Moon & passing jet
If you find Saturday's New Moon impossible to spot- then it should be much easier on Sunday evening! Good luck.
EDIT- another 33 hour old crescent moon photo (scanned slide from 1989) featuring the planet Venus and a nice bit of foreground detail.
well done 
but the first is a real corker!!