Golden Gate from Marin, 2 may 1996 (16 mm full frame fisheye lens)	Annotated Golden Gate from Marin, 2 may 1996 Click on this picture for more notes	Golden Gate from Marin, next day, 3 may 1996

To get a nice effect of the moon rising in late afternoon, I try to get a moon that is 12 to 24 hours before full. 24 hours at our latitude(N 37 Degrees) has the moon rising in a bright sky, probably with the Sun still up, but the eastern sky will be not excessively bright, so the moon can still stand out prominently, and it will be well above the horizon, and undistorted.

The 2 may 96 shot was taken about 11 hours before full moon, so it is well up at the time of middle twilight, instead of rising later into a darker sky. This has the effect of a moon much brighter than the sky, but not over powering it. Also, if there is a bit of haze, you tent to get the nice crepuscular rays as in the 2 may shot.

This is also a good setup for Girdle of Venus effect near the moon, also just visible in the 2 may shot.

The 3 may 96 shot, just over 24 hours later, has the moon 36 hours past full, so it does not rise until the sky is quite dark. If you catch it early enough as in the 3 may shot, it will be dim enough to not overpower the darker surroundings. But, in 15 or 20 min, the contrast will be overwhelming.

I find that if you show up with the moon exactly full at sunset, the effect is not so good( at least at our latitude in summer). The moon will rise into a bright sky, but will be very dim, and won't show up well.

To do this kind of thing, you need to know not just the day, but the hour of the full moon. I guess that's true if you suffer from Lycanthropy, too. You can get this info from calenders, but they usually don't give the time, just the day, and they often have that wrong, since they don't pay attention to the fact that almanacs generally refer to UTC times.

There is no shortage of sites to get this phase info, just make sure they give the time zone reference of their data, since hours count if you want the shot just right.

I like the site called Moon View for this:

Current Moon Phase

Plus there are other way cool viewers at their site, like viewing the Earth from the Moon, or anywhere else, I think:

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