The Official Shoot the Moon Thread

Thanks. It's a lot like fishing. A lot of waiting and every once in a while you catch one. Also, even when conditions are perfect, a lot more planes miss the Moon than cross it.

I'm a private pilot and I also always liked photographing the moon so I have been wanting to take a shot like this for a long time. Here is how I do it:

Most airports use their east - west runways and because the wind generally blows from the west, controllers usually sequence planes in for landing from the east which is very convenient because whenever we have a full moon it always rises from the east as well.

Please take a look at my drawings and let me know if you have any questions

Friendly piece of advice: once the moon is "high" enough and you feel like the aircraft is approaching then lock in your focus on the moon and switch your lens to manual focus, many times your camera will want to re-adjust focus once the plane enters the frame. It will all happen very fast, it's kind of like a panning shot, you take a bunch and choose a good one later - happy fishing!

This is just what I was able to come up with. I have seen many beautiful images taken from different angles, I would love to learn another method if someone here has one.

OK. Is the approach angle (? glide slope) always at a standard angle or does it vary from airport to airport ? If it's standard, what is it and if not, where do I find it ?

Steve.

SteveInNZ wrote in post #18126898
OK. Is the approach angle (? glide slope) always at a standard angle or does it vary from airport to airport ? If it's standard, what is it and if not, where do I find it ?

Steve.

It's usually a fixed angle unless terrain prevents it, at ~3° Most large airports will use this angle for precision approaches (ILS, GPS).
Non-precision approaches are left to the discretion of the pilot, although commercial jets will probably be close to that angle. Many visual approach aids are also set to that angle as well.

SteveInNZ wrote in post #18126898
OK. Is the approach angle (? glide slope) always at a standard angle or does it vary from airport to airport ? If it's standard, what is it and if not, where do I find it ?

Steve.

When ILS (instrument landing system) is in use and it usually is, controllers first have airplanes get established on the localizer which means they are lined up with the centerline of the assigned runway (I have seen that happen anywhere from 5 to 15 miles out but usually around 8-12). Later, when they are a few miles out they also start descending on the glide slope which is always 3 degrees. The part when airplanes start their final descent may vary from runway to runway but the bottom line is that once you see a certain airplane come in, chances are the next one will do practically the same thing.

This has to be done at a busy airport, those who take pictures of the moon probably know how fast it actually moves and you only have a few minutes to take the show so if there isn't an airplane coming in to land at time the moon will rise above the flight path and at that time you can either just go home and come back next month or sit there for hours to wait for some other random airplane to cross the moon again - I have done some of that and it never worked well .

I also suggest to monitor this site:
http://www.timeanddate​.com/moon/usa/chicago

The best time for my method is on a night when we have a full moon, a day before or after is also acceptable. The full moon will rise over the horizon almost directly to the east, it will then "travel up and slightly to the right" I try to show up to my favorite spot 5 minutes before the moon shows up and it usually takes about 25 minutes for the moon to rise high enough to intersect the patch of descending aircraft.

I hope this helps.

Apps like flightradar24 can also be helpful for working out where and at what height the aircraft will be, particularly as this information is overlayed onto a street map.

We don't have a busy airport (by your standards) so the more pre-planning I can do, the better. Your (collective) answers will help a lot. Thanks.

Steve.

Like train-spotting, there are people who enjoy plane-spotting and there are groups who do this. Depending on where you live, there may be a group of plane-spotting photographers near you.

If you want to get shots like this, you might want to contact such a group. There are two reasons..

(1) they usually have good locations for photographing the planes and
(2) they usually have a relationship with the local airport security and contact them to let them know when they plan to be shooting... so the airport security will expect the photographers and won't perceive them as a security threat.

Also, if you want the aircraft to fit within the diameter of the moon, the moon's diameter is roughly 1/2º from edge to edge (when full). You can divide the known size of the aircraft by the tangent of .5º to determine how far away you should be. e.g. If a Boeing 757 has a length of 179' (quick Google search) then 179' ÷ tan(.5) = 20511'. In other words you'd probably want to be at least 4 miles away. If you are closer then the plane may be longer than the diameter of the moon.

This works well for shots of objects in front of the moon since varying your distance to the plane will change it's angular size (how large it appears based on your distance from the object). But since the moon is much much farther away, it'll appear to be the same size regardless of where you are standing.

Brylek wrote in post #18126621
I'm a private pilot and I also always liked photographing the moon so I have been wanting to take a shot like this for a long time. Here is how I do it:

Most airports use their east - west runways and because the wind generally blows from the west, controllers usually sequence planes in for landing from the east which is very convenient because whenever we have a full moon it always rises from the east as well.

Please take a look at my drawings and let me know if you have any questions

Friendly piece of advice: once the moon is "high" enough and you feel like the aircraft is approaching then lock in your focus on the moon and switch your lens to manual focus, many times your camera will want to re-adjust focus once the plane enters the frame. It will all happen very fast, it's kind of like a panning shot, you take a bunch and choose a good one later - happy fishing!

This is just what I was able to come up with. I have seen many beautiful images taken from different angles, I would love to learn another method if someone here has one.

Hosted photo: posted by Brylek in
./showthread.php?p=181​26621&i=i265451010
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Excellent information!

This is similar to my approach and the diagram is almost identical, only I'm about 12 miles north of the airport. My ideal conditions are the Moon in the southeast and planes taking off toward the east. In that case, westbound planes make a u-turn toward the north and cross my southern sky from east to west. The planes don't take an identical path, as their altitude and flightpath will vary a little. What I give up in precision I make up for with convenience. I can sit in my front yard relaxing and waiting. I could probably find a spot closer to the airport and get more shots, but that would mean fighting Atlanta traffic.

I did leave the house tonight to try to get a better location while the Moon was low. I sat in a CVS parking lot for about an hour and had planes missing both above and below the Moon. I got a couple of "partial" shots (one is the last shot below).

Tonight wasn't near as much fun as last night, when I sat in my yard for three hours. I captured three good shots and a couple of "partials" and had several near misses.

On a side note - If planes are taking off toward the west, my best chances are a few days before the full Moon in the early evening. In that case, planes turning north cross almost overhead. Planes turning northeast cross my southern sky from west to east. I don't get as many opportunities, but once again I don't have to leave my yard. In this scenario, I have my best chance of catching high altitude planes flying to or from Florida, as they usually fly right over Atlanta.

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …42016-020-XL.jpg&lb=1&s=A

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …42016-012-XL.jpg&lb=1&s=A

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …42016-042-XL.jpg&lb=1&s=A

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …42016-077-XL.jpg&lb=1&s=A

I missed a flock of birds by just a few seconds...

Snowyman wrote in post #18128606
I missed a flock of birds by just a few seconds...

Bummer you missed getting the birds in the shot.....

But this shot is GREAT!

sandwedge wrote in post #18128405
Excellent information!

This is similar to my approach and the diagram is almost identical, only I'm about 12 miles north of the airport. My ideal conditions are the Moon in the southeast and planes taking off toward the east. In that case, westbound planes make a u-turn toward the north and cross my southern sky from east to west. The planes don't take an identical path, as their altitude and flightpath will vary a little. What I give up in precision I make up for with convenience. I can sit in my front yard relaxing and waiting. I could probably find a spot closer to the airport and get more shots, but that would mean fighting Atlanta traffic.

I did leave the house tonight to try to get a better location while the Moon was low. I sat in a CVS parking lot for about an hour and had planes missing both above and below the Moon. I got a couple of "partial" shots (one is the last shot below).

Tonight wasn't near as much fun as last night, when I sat in my yard for three hours. I captured three good shots and a couple of "partials" and had several near misses.

On a side note - If planes are taking off toward the west, my best chances are a few days before the full Moon in the early evening. In that case, planes turning north cross almost overhead. Planes turning northeast cross my southern sky from west to east. I don't get as many opportunities, but once again I don't have to leave my yard. In this scenario, I have my best chance of catching high altitude planes flying to or from Florida, as they usually fly right over Atlanta.

Those shots are great!
The first one looks like a CRJ-200, second is most likely a Boeing 717, third could be a MD-80 and the last one could be a Boeing 737.

Why not position yourself on a parking lot about 3-5 miles north east of the airport and wait for the moon to rise high enough to cross the patch of planes arriving to land? It doesn't look like you can do it today because the winds are forecasted to be out of the east for Atlanta (100 degrees at 4 knots per newest TAF). Hopefully you can catch one departing to the east from your backyard since the sky will be almost clear!

I have 2 from tonight, apparently I was too far north for where the moon was.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Mi88​s4

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/MaW5​Mp

It has been awhile since I took a moon shot. Did this one about 3 hours ago....

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/LTDh​oE