Last night/this morning was the official "New Moon" which means tonight is the perfect night to photograph the moon (what little there is) and of course the stars. Tonight's moon was once very important to ancient peoples due to the need to calculate important dates for religious ceremonies and is still extremely important to Muslims around the world.
This is from The Photographers Ephemeris"
"The new moon is always located close to the sun and may not be immediately observable. The percentage illumination of the moon's disc, together with a classification of visibility, from "A" to "F" (visible to invisible) based on the Yallop method, is shown."
The Yallup method is an algorithm first developed by the ancient Babylonians for predicting the synodic phases of the moon as well as the important "first visibility? of the lunar crescent moon. Tonights crescent moon is calculated to have a Yallup scale of "A", the best and most visible of all the scales. The key is to be fast about it because the crescent moon will not last long post sunset. The sun will dip below the horizon at exactly 7:33 tonight and the moon will be below the horizon in exactly 50 mins later. This will allow you to capture the moon in its more narrow of possible crescents in the depth of a "blue hour" background.
Here is an excellent read on Yallup scales and predicting the phases of the moon
Predicting the First Visibility of the Lunar CrescentBut the this phase of the moon is also good for full blown star photographs since the skies will be their darkest tonight.
So everyone should be out tonight capturing images of the crescent moon in all its glory as well as awesome shots of the Milky Way. In the words of Capt. Picard - "Make it so, number 1"
This is from The Photographers Ephemeris"
"The new moon is always located close to the sun and may not be immediately observable. The percentage illumination of the moon's disc, together with a classification of visibility, from "A" to "F" (visible to invisible) based on the Yallop method, is shown."
The Yallup method is an algorithm first developed by the ancient Babylonians for predicting the synodic phases of the moon as well as the important "first visibility? of the lunar crescent moon. Tonights crescent moon is calculated to have a Yallup scale of "A", the best and most visible of all the scales. The key is to be fast about it because the crescent moon will not last long post sunset. The sun will dip below the horizon at exactly 7:33 tonight and the moon will be below the horizon in exactly 50 mins later. This will allow you to capture the moon in its more narrow of possible crescents in the depth of a "blue hour" background.
Here is an excellent read on Yallup scales and predicting the phases of the moon
Predicting the First Visibility of the Lunar CrescentBut the this phase of the moon is also good for full blown star photographs since the skies will be their darkest tonight.
So everyone should be out tonight capturing images of the crescent moon in all its glory as well as awesome shots of the Milky Way. In the words of Capt. Picard - "Make it so, number 1"