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 fifteen months of repeated efforts to catch the rising full moon against the Temple of Poseidon in southern Greece and which was finally realized with the May/2005 full moon. The primary task was to identify the optimal time after sunset which would yield a perfect (!) balance between the (bright) moon and the natural lighting of the Temple of Poseidon. This was determined to be approximately 22 minutes after sunset. The months that ensued were then used to reverse engineer the perspective of the temple with respect to its physical azimuth and altitude. 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 archaelogical grounds) as well as azimuth and altitude.

Note: For additional photos of the rising moon from the same session, please click here.


Image Details
Selene Rising at Sounion
Imaging Details
Body:
Moon

Mass:
0.0123 x Earth

Mean Eq Diameter:
0.2719 x Earth

Distance:
369,105 km

Sidereal Rev:
27d 07h 43m 11s

Age:
14d 15h 42m

Phase:
99.9°

Diameter:
33.41'

Magnitude:
-12.6

Rukl:
N/A
Date:
May 23, 2005
20:53:21 UT+3


Location:
Sounion, Greece
(37.6564° N, 24.0138° E)


Equipment:
Canon EOS 300d
Canon EOS 100-300 USM II
    @ 300 mm


Exposure:
1 x 0.6 sec @ f5.6
ISO 100
JPG FINE Image Format
3072x2048 image size
Auto Mode


Software:
Canon FileViewer V1.3.2
Photoshop V6


Processing:
Unsharp Masking
Resampling (22%)
JPG Compression