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 the culmination of over twelve months of repeated efforts to capture the rising full moon against the Parthenon (447-438 BC) in central Athens and which was finally realized with the Oct/2007 full moon. The primary task in such an exercise is to identify the optimal time after sunset which yields a perfect balance between the bright moon and the natural lighting of the archaelogical grounds. From a previous exercise involving the Temple of Poseidon, this was established to be approximately 25 minutes after sunset and, more specifically, when the sun has already set and is approximately four to six degrees below the horizon. Three months were required to precisely reverse engineer the perspective of the Parthenon with respect to its physical azimuth and altitude from my shooting location at Philopappou Hill which lies approximately 700 meters due southwest of the Parthenon. The final exercise involved the identification of the "proper" full moon during the calendar year which would simultaneously meet the above criteria with respect to lighting balance (full moon and archaeological grounds) as well as azimuth and altitude.

Note: For additional photos of the rising moon from the same session as well as the rising moon against the Temple of Poseidon (2005), please click here.


Image Details
Selene Rising Over the Parthenon
Imaging Details
Body:
Moon

Mass:
0.0123 x Earth

Mean Eq Diameter:
0.2719 x Earth

Distance:
356,783 km

Sidereal Rev:
27d 07h 43m 11s

Age:
15d 10h 38m

Phase:
99.5°

Diameter:
33.56'

Magnitude:
-12.6

Rukl:
N/A
Date:
Oct 26, 2007
18:56:30 UT+3


Location:
Philopappou Hill,
Athens, Greece
(37.9691° N, 23.7202° E)


Equipment:
Canon EOS 300d
Canon EOS 28-105 USM II
    @ 70 mm


Exposure:
1 x 0.6 sec @ f4.5
ISO 100
RAW Image Format
3072x2048 image size
Auto Mode


Software:
Canon ZoomBrowser Ex V5.1
Photoshop CS2


Processing:
RAW to TIFF (16-bit) conv
Unsharp Masking
Resampling
JPG Compression