8-minute read

In case anyone missed it amid all the COVID kerfuffle, the second (or third, depending on whose definition you use) super moon of 2020 took place on Tuesday, April 7th at 22:36 (if you care to be exact).

This full moon was the closest to the Earth at its perigee (221,851 miles - again, if you want to be exact), and therefore the largest super moon of the year. It’s called the “pink” moon because of its association with a common wildflower in North America called the moss phlox, which blooms around this time of year in a bright pink color.

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate nearly as well as it did for last month’s Super Worm Moon, so the results are somewhat underwhelming compared to last month. The moon also didn’t rise in the same spot right over the Lincoln Memorial when viewed from the hill below the Netherlands Carillon. In fact, thanks to a tip from a friend (thanks, RC!), I tried to shoot the moonset this month facing the other direction, namely from the US Capitol (or actually the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial in front of the Capitol building, if - yeah - you care to be exact).

So, full of anticipation, I got up at 04:00 (yes, that’s AM) on Monday morning, had a quick bite, gathered my gear, and made my way down to the Pennsylvania Ave. parking lot in front of the Capitol Building. Not surprisingly, due both to the hour and the current “situation”, there were 4 cars in the parking lot. Moonset was at 06:14 - I got there by 05:45 - but the moon was already obscured by a layer of clouds on the horizon, and all I could see was a vague glow off to the right of the Washington Monument. I was ok with this since it was intended as a “dry run” anyway - I wasn’t even sure if streets downtown would be blocked off around the Capitol, and I didn’t want any last-minute surprises on “the” morning.

Hating to waste a trip downtown, I stayed for sunrise on Monday morning, and set both cameras to shoot timelapses facing in opposite directions. Ironically, although it was a gorgeous morning - and sort of a treat to have the entire place to myself (minus the occasional runner) - the sky behind the Capitol was as clear as glass, making for a stunningly boring sunrise. This was the best shot of the morning:

As you can see from the short timelapse video below, the cloud bank dissipated somewhat in the other direction as the sun rose, and the buildings in Rosslyn, VA - just behind the Lincoln Memorial, on the other side of the Potomac - lit up with the reflections of the rising sun.

Since the moon only showed up for about 20 minutes on Tuesday evening (from 19:41 to 20:01) - which equated to 6 seconds of timelapse video - I just tacked that on to the end of the video below (it didn’t seem worth it to create a separate video clip for that).

After an unsuccessful Monday morning (from a super moon perspective), I headed to the Netherlands Carillon on Monday evening. Again, I treated that as sort of a dry run, and didn’t expect to be able to see much, mostly because of the time difference between sunset and moon rise. Moon rise was at 18:03, while sunset was at 19:39, so the sky would still be very bright by the time the moon rose.

It was sort of a heartbreaking situation, because as the moon rose, it was in the most perfect alignment with the Washing Monument that I’ve ever seen - but - it was so washed out by the sun (and the sky was just slightly hazy) that it was barely visible to the naked eye, let alone to the camera’s sensor. I did the best I could in post-production, but it still looks sort of like a wispy dandelion perched on top of the Washington Monument:

Just to give you an idea of what I was working with, take a look at the before-and-after editing in Lightroom below

(that’s about what the moon looked like to the naked eye on the left):

I was so desperate to try to recover anything possible of the moon that I “over-edited” the photo, but that was the only way to get the moon to show up at all. It’s really a shame the sun wasn’t a bit lower so I could more contrast and detail in the moon, but it wasn’t to be….maybe if I had exposed the original shot better, I might have been able to recover more, but we’ll never know now….and no point in second-guessing the situation.

Of course, later in the evening, as the sun set and the skies darkened, the moon showed up very nicely - but by then it was too high in the sky to be really dramatic. Nevertheless, I hung out long enough to get a few shots with the Iwo Jima Memorial in the foreground:

Not one to be easily discouraged, I headed back downtown to the Capitol on Tuesday morning. According to the Photopills app (one of the best sun/moon positioning apps out there, if you can wrap your brain around its complexities), the moon should be setting on Tuesday morning almost in line with the Lincoln Memorial:

The light blue line on the app window above shows the line-of-sight on Tuesday morning at the exact time of moon set (06:46). With sunrise only 3 minutes earlier, the sky would still have been dark enough to see the huge, glowing moon setting just a hair to the right of the Lincoln Memorial from the vantage point of the Capitol building.

Once again, though, the weather was my worst enemy. When I stepped out on my balcony at 04:00 on Tuesday morning and saw ruddy, cloudy skies my heart sank. If I’ve learned nothing over time, though, it’s not to assume the worst of the weather - you never know, it could suddenly clear on you, and if I didn’t make the trip, I’d be kicking myself for years afterward if the skies miraculously cleared by the time the moon was setting.

With moonset scheduled for 06:46, I got downtown early, and was just setting up at about 05:55. The skies were completely socked in, I couldn’t see the moon at all, not even a vague glow in the sky where it should have been at that time. As I was attaching my camera to the tripod, though, I couldn’t believe my eyes as the sky suddenly lit up. I just had enough time to focus, set my exposure, and fire off a few frames as the moon peeked out for about 60 seconds! Then it was gone for the duration, without making another appearance all morning. Here’s the best shot from that morning - at 06:00 on the nose - with the moon still well above the monuments:

It might not be much, but at least I could say I was there when it showed up, and I gave it my best shot (no pun intended).

Undeterred, I resolved to head back to the Netherlands Carillon that evening.

By early afternoon on Tuesday, the skies started darkening, so I checked my weather app. The barometer showed a steep drop, radar showed rain clouds incoming, and I started getting troubling alerts about hail and damaging winds:

Sure enough, around 15:30, the skies opened up with heavy rain and a few good thunder claps. I figured it was a done deal, I was pretty much ready to write off the whole evening, but then within the hour, the sun was blazing like nothing had ever happened. The only evidence of the downpour that had come and gone was the mini creek that had formed out in the backyard, and was still gurgling along.

So, ok, fine - you wanna play games with me, Mother Nature? I’m ready. Hit me with your best shot.

My gear was already packed - I bundled it into the trunk and headed down to the Carillon at about 18:00.

There were only a handful of photographers there - nothing like the crowds that had shown up for last month’s spectacle:

But of course it was just cloudy enough to hide the moon at the time it was rising, and when it would be its biggest and brightest. Using the Augmented Reality feature of Photopills, here’s an overlay of where the moon would have been had we been able to see it:

Moonrise on Tuesday evening was at 19:19 (sunset was at 19:40), but the moon didn’t make an appearance until 19:41, at which point it was already pretty high in the sky and well off to the right of the monuments. Here’s the best shot of the evening, taken at 19:42:

So, after trying my hardest, I never really came away with that epic shot I’d been hoping for - but that’s the name of the game. To quote one of my favorite lines from “The Big Lebowski”: “Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you”.

At least I remembered the rule “always look behind you”. The sunset on Tuesday night was not what I would call spectacular, but it was nice enough to merit a few quick snaps on the phone:

So there you have it, folks - the epic tale of a not-so-epic moon adventure! Woo hoo!

As always, thanks for checking out my blog - and come back on Saturday for my Fredericksburg photowalk in black&white!

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