Starship Asterisk*

Baku Moonrise

Explanation: A Full Moon rises in this waterfront scene. Its colorful, watery reflection is joined by harbor lights and a windowed skyscraper's echo of the western horizon just after sunset. The tantalizing image is a composite of frames recorded at 2 minute intervals on November 28 from the Caspian Sea port city of Baku, Azerbaijan. Still, this Full Moon was not really as big or as bright as others, though it might be hard to tell. In fact, November 28's Full Moon was near apogee, making it the smallest Full Moon of 2012. As it rose over the Baku boardwalk (along with much of the eastern hemisphere), it was also in the Earth's lighter or penumbral shadow. The subtle effect of the penumbral lunar eclipse is just discernible as the slightly darker left side of the lunar disk. Opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky, the Full Moon was also joined by bright planet Jupiter, only a few days from its own opposition.

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Oh, I was hoping this would show up as an APOD!! Yay!

Congrats, Tunç!

This image is very good.

Nice Photograph!

Yes, congrats again to Tunç... you've got so many APODs even Wally might be envious.

Thank you all! Owlice, I was nearly not making the spot on time because of commitments to my day job. This was just a few meters to the north of where I photographed the sunrise analemma earlier this year.

Geckzilla, Wally and I had a road trip around US Southwest in May 2012. Back then, owners of 79 APODs were in his car.

Tunç Tezel

The reflection of the moon in the water is a bit suspicious. It must have been manufactured because it couldn't have matched up like that with each frame.

mbondr wrote:The reflection of the moon in the water is a bit suspicious. It must have been manufactured because it couldn't have matched up like that with each frame.

Why couldn't they have? Make your case.

mbondr wrote:The reflection of the moon in the water is a bit suspicious. It must have been manufactured because it couldn't have matched up like that with each frame.

How could it not be?

In fact, November 28's Full Moon was near apogee, making it the smallest Full Moon of 2012.

I think you mean "near perigee".

dziban303 wrote:

In fact, November 28's Full Moon was near apogee, making it the smallest Full Moon of 2012.

I think you mean "near perigee".

On 28 November 2012 the Moon was both full, and at apogee (406364 km). The two events were only separated by about five hours.

Lovely. Thanks. It's surprising to see how far the Moon and Jupiter move in the sky over just two minutes of Earth's rotation.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:Lovely. Thanks. It's surprising to see how far the Moon and Jupiter move in the sky over just two minutes of Earth's rotation.

As astroimagers know, the sky rotates at 15 arcseconds per second, or 1/4° per minute. The Moon is 1/2° in diameter, and near the ecliptic, so we expect it to travel its own width in about 2 minutes. And here we have a lovely photographic demonstration of that otherwise fairly abstract observation.

Chris Peterson wrote:

Anthony Barreiro wrote:Lovely. Thanks. It's surprising to see how far the Moon and Jupiter move in the sky over just two minutes of Earth's rotation.

As astroimagers know, the sky rotates at 15 arcseconds per second, or 1/4° per minute. The Moon is 1/2° in diameter, and near the ecliptic, so we expect it to travel its own width in about 2 minutes. And here we have a lovely photographic demonstration of that otherwise fairly abstract observation.

Yes, as somebody who uses manually driven telescope mounts, I know how fast the sky moves. And as you say, this is a lovely depiction of that movement.