The moon can be tricky to photograph – but astrophotographers are in for a moon treat in the second half of October.
When I was browsing through some of the top news photos from the past week, I had to stop and take a closer look at this shot from photographer Gary Hershorn. The photograph places a waxing crescent moon directly behind the torch from New York City’s Statue of Liberty.
The orange glow of the Moon, only ten percent lit, appears as if it's an extension of Lady Liberty’s torch itself. Hershon used a 300mm lens – mounted on the Canon EOS R7 – to get the shot, which helps the moon to appear larger in the image.
Hershon’s photograph from October 13 is an excellent shot of a crescent moon. But October is ripe with opportunities to photograph the moon – and one of October’s biggest astrophotography events is yet to come.
October’s full moon is on October 25, but the full moon will be closest to the horizon when it rises on October 26. When the moon is the closest to the horizon, its light has to pass through the thickest part of the Earth’s atmosphere, which gives it a warmer color like orange or yellow.
That’s why the sliver of moon in Hershon’s photo is orange. But October’s big moon event, the Hunter Moon, will be another opportunity for astrophotographers to catch the moon in a warm glow at this month’s full moon.
An orange moon isn’t a rare occurrence. But October’s full moon is often a photography favorite because it rises close to sunset, so there’s often enough sunlight left to offer some light to the rest of the landscape.
Digital Camera World’s astrophotography expert Jamie Carter recommends using a telephoto lens (ideally 200-600mm) to photograph this month’s Hunter’s Moon on October 26. The moon will be fairly bright – it’s a supermoon, though a smaller one – so photographers will need a lower ISO and faster shutter speed to avoid overexposing the details on the surface of the moon.
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Read about October's astrophotography events to photograph. Or, take a look at the best telephoto lenses.
