The Sturgeon Supermoon

 Another supermonn tonight; the last supermoon of the year.  This one is the Sturgeon Moon named by the Algonquin tribes in what is now the north eastern United States after the fish that were more easily caught in the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water at this time of year.  

The Photographers' Ephemeris told me that it would rise over the fields behind Scartho adjacent to the Horsefield so just as the sun was setting in the north west at one end of the fields we waited fro the moon to appear in the south east.  For once there was no bank of cloud on the horizon so we waited with anticipation.  A short while after the appointed hour we saw an orange glow behind New Waltham and then there it was: a deep orange-red orb haning in the sky about the fields.  It was a moving and magical spiritual experience and I could only wonder at the emotions felt by those Algonquin people so many years ago.

The next full moon is the Harvest Moon on September the 10th when we are at the caravan on the edge of The Lakes.  Fingers crossed for a clear night.

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The Buck Supermoon

 With a friend Heather and I went out to try and photograph another supermoon; this one the Buck Moon, so called because this is the time of year when the deer's antlers are fully grown ready for the rut in Autumn.  This time we decided to go to the yacht club car park on the Fitties as, in theory, there would be an unimpeded view.  This would certainly have been the case had there not been a thick bank of cloud on the horizon.  We eventually gave the cloud best and went home hoping to photograph it later in the evening.  Unfortunately it did't climb very high in the sky and, even when it emerged from the clouds it remained hidden by trees.  The following night, however, I was awake at 3.30 and managed some shots through a gap in the trees.

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The Strawberry Supermoon

 We were just about to call it a night and return home for a nightcap when Jane saw a sliver of red appearing above the trees on the Fitties.  Three of us had gone down to the promenade by Buck Beck to try and obtain better views of June's full moon: the strawberry supermoon, one of only three supermoons this year.  A supermoon is a full or new moon that coincides with the closest the moon comes to the Earth's orbit and so it appears larger than normal.  When we arrived, there were several other moon watchers along with a fleet of campervans that appeared to be overnighting (illegally?).  Although it was a beautiful evening with moon rise sceduled for 1017, there was a bank of cloud masking the horizon.  Things were not looking good until we spotted it as we were on the point of giving up.  It did seem large and was an amazing deep red.  However, as this low in the sky, it was a challenge to photograph as it was not reflecting much light.  I cound only manage a 1 sec exposure so getting the image critically sharp was nigh on impossible as the moon moves surprisingly fast.  More or less immediately on showing its full disc, the moon proceeded to disappear behind the bank of cloud.  Still, it was an amazing experience and the next supermoon is in July, the Buck Moon on 13th.

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The Pink Supermoon

The last couple of nights have been beautifully clear and I have been enjoying photographing the Pink Supermoon.  A supermoon occurs at time when the full or new moon approaches its closest point to the Earth; its perigee.  The Pink Supermoon is named not for its colour but from a northern Native American reference to an early blooming wild flower.  Pink or not it was spectacular.  The images were taken at different times from just after moonrise when it was still nearly daylight up to 11.00 pm. As can be seen from the images, just after moonrise it is a very golden colour which gradully changes to the more familiar silver colour the higher in the sky it rises.

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Monochrome version