February’s Full Snow Moon over Lick Observatory

I did the homework so that we could take a shot of the full moon rising over the legendary Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, high above the Silicon Valley. On February 8, the moon rose at 5:38pm at an azimuth of 70° and an angle of 4.3° above the horizon, as seen from the Communication Hill, 12 miles (19.3 km) away from the Lick Observatory. My azimuth calculation was a bit off, so I raced down the hill with my camera gear once the moon came up to the left of the observatory. The sunset was at about the same time, which gave a balanced light. There was some atmospheric distortion due to the heat in the air.

 

I processed a balanced and a photographic HDR photo from a RAW exposure, blended them selectively, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive comments.

 

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-- ƒ/8.0, 900 mm, 1/60 sec, ISO 200, Sony A6000, Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3, HDR, 1 RAW exposure, _DSC9612_hdr1bal1pho1h.jpg

-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography

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