Astrophotography by Anthony Ayiomamitis

Lunar Image Gallery - Scenic Phenomenon

Our closest celestial neighbour has kept us company for at least four billion years and has entertained our imagination in a variety of ways. It certainly has been involved in our maturation as a species with man's first step on a body beyond our planet during the latter part of the twentienth century and will, inevitably, be our first stop prior to any sort of manned travel to a further celestial body such as Mars. The moon has been a great source of education about our own planet's evolutionary history; it has entertained many inquisitive minds from earlier cultures and generations about the universe in general and man's role in particular; it has enriched the minds of young children taking their first look through a telescope and continues to impact our lives in ways we may or may not readily recognize including tidal forces and various natural rhythms and cycles.

Note: The image below is a follow-up to other similar efforts involving the rising (full) moon near dusk and against well-known landmarks in Greece including archaeological grounds (see here). Such an exercise requires careful planning and execution so that the azimuth and altitude of the rising moon match precisely with the foreground landmark of interest. Also important is the time during late afternoon that such an attempt is executed, for one requires balanced lighting between the foreground landmark and the bright rising (full) moon. Once all of these factors are available simultaneously with respect to lighting balance (full moon and landmark foreground) as well as azimuth and altitude, a result such as the one below involving the air traffic control tower at Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens, Greece is realized.

Named after one of the most prominent prime ministers of Greece, the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport opened for operation in March 2001 and represents one of the leading airports in Greece. It is characterized with two parallel runaways (3800 and 4000 meters in length) for simultaneous take-off and landing which can accommodate the biggest aircraft in the world. Current annual traffic involves 15 million passengers with a physical capacity of 21 million passengers using the current facilities (Phase Six expansion plans are for 50 million passengers per year). Lying about 20 km to the east of Athens, the airport has a physical surface area of 150,000 square meters across four levels with many bridges and walkways. Built at a cost of 2.1 billion euros, the airport received the 2004 "European Airport of the Year" whereas in 2005 and 2006 it was awarded the Skytrax award for best airport in Southern Europe. In the image below, a portion of the 70-meter tall air traffic control tower is visible including the 12-meter wide staff sections. The photo was taken from a distance of about 2250 meters to the northwest of the control tower so as to be properly aligned with the rising full moon immediately behind it.

Note: For additional photos of the rising moon from the same session as well as photos of the sun and/or full moon against other well-known Greek archaeological grounds and sites, please click here.

Image Details
Full Moon Over the Air Traffic Control Tower
Imaging Details
Body:
Moon

Mass:
0.0123 x Earth

Mean Eq Diameter:
0.2719 x Earth

Distance:
364,305 km

Sidereal Rev:
27d 07h 43m 11s

Age:
15d 02h 12m

Phase:
99.8°

Diameter:
32.84'

Magnitude:
-12.6

Rukl:
N/A
Date:
July 31, 2015

Location:
Spata,
Athens, Greece


Equipment:
Takahashi FSQ 106/f5
Canon EOS 5D Mark I
AP 2x Conv Barlow


Exposure:
1/20 sec
ISO 200
RAW Image Format
4368x2912 image size
Manual Mode
Servo Mode


Software:
Digital Photo Pro V2.1.1.4
Photoshop CS5


Processing:
Resampling
JPG Compression