Three Moonrises

 

A picture of a picture of moonrise

10 October 2021

The nights we were in Bar Harbor were either cloud-free or clouded over, neither of which made for spectacular sunsets. We'd deliberately arrange for late dinner reservations so that we could avoid the crowds and get a seat outside. This worked out well for balcony sunsets and moonrises, and for three nights, I trained my little Canon PowerShot on the Harvest Moon.

I: September 19

On the bay, the sky and water turn pink as the sun goes down. The Margaret Todd returns from her evening sail.

The air was clear enough that I could see distant windmills to the north:

When it got too dark to read, I went inside. That's when Terry C texted me her moonrise picture from Belmar. I scurried back outside, tripod in tow, and set up.

My iPhone 12, it turned out, was better at capturing the entire scene than my Canon was, even though the phone overexposed everything.

It took me a while to get the exposure time right. I was zoomed in at 40, 64, and sometimes 80x.

The couple on the next balcony over was trying to get pictures with their Android phones. It wasn't working out for them. It probably looked something like this:

Meanwhile, back at 64x zoom:

I eventually ditched the tripod and tried plain old automatic exposures. The Canon was having none of it. I could properly expose the moon or the water, but not both.

My phone didn't do much better in that regard, turning night into day in the process, sometimes reflecting the lens as a little green dot in the foreground, which is really annoying:

II: September 20

The next night, I was ready. 

First, from blue sky to a yellow tint on the Porcupine islands:

Next, the pink set in:

The sun set, the Ziggys hopped onto their webs, and the couple next door came out to watch the moon rise.

I trained the camera over Bald Porcupine Island.

I always had my camera with me, so as we waited for our table at Blaze, I took some pictures of chain shadows across one of the restaurant doors.

Pumpkins already? It's not even October.

The moose above Geddys shone brightly.

III: September 21

When we walk back to the hotel, we take a shortcut through the bank parking lot to a gravel road lined with guest cottages. There are no streetlights along this path, and we always marvel that we've managed never to sprain an ankle. I looked up and saw thin clouds covering the moon. I pulled out my camera and got a few freehand shots before Jack said, "Come on. Let's go."

So I set up on the balcony again.

The moon was high enough now that I figured I might get some better pictures if I walked down to the Shore Path in front of the hotel. I positioned myself a little off the path, under a tall evergreen tree.

Not great, but still true to the way things looked:

I gave up on the Canon and stepped back so that my phone's camera would frame the moon among the low branches:

I took one more with my phone from the hotel balcony when I got back. I know it's a cell phone picture because of that annoying green dot, a reflection of the moonlight on the lens.