Sunset and Moonrise – December 26th, 2015

A two-hour long trip to the Comana Woods, south of Bucharest, with the precise goal of shooting both the Sunset and the Moonrise. I’ve succeeded doing both and with a bonus.

First, a general view near the Neajlov Delta, in Comana, a few minutes before the Sunset:

Now, some shots of the Sun going down, with birds flying over its disk, and a hint of a green flash. The images were acquired using a small 65mm F/6.5 APO refractor and a Canon 550D camera, with no filters.

And now, about the bonus I was writing earlier: after a few minutes of searching, my wife glimpsed the planet Mercury over some tree tops:

After another hour, the much anticipated Moonrise occured. Same equipment as for the Sunset images, but this time the refractor had to be placed onto the EQ6 equatorial mount.

First, a series of images depicting the Moon rising over a small hill, and changing its shape as it climbed:

One of the earlier shots, showing the strange shape that out satellite can take due to the atmospheric layers:

Another shot, with some cirrus clouds interfering:

And a High Dynamic Range shot made from three separate images:

In the end, a small comparison of the apparent vertical dimension of the Moon as it was getting higher in the sky: