Last night was Friday the 13th, and I was hoping to get lucky with the crescent moon as it was going down in the western sky. Catching a crescent moon at twilight is kind of tricky, because you have several factors to consider. For example, if you want to capture the rising crescent, you will be shooting at dawn a couple days before the New Moon. If you want a moonset, then it will be at sunset a couple days after the New Moon. Other factors include the location of the moon on the horizon, size of the crescent, and the time of the setting or rising sun. All of these can be determined with one of the various smartphone or tablet apps such as The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE).
Most of the factors looked promising for the crescent after sunset on the 13th. It was two days past the New Moon and, according to TPE, it would be lined up fairly well with the Jefferson Memorial with the Tidal Basin in the foreground. The size would be a little smaller (<5% illumination) than I would have liked and a bit higher in the sky (9 degrees), but otherwise there seemed to be a lot of potential. So I headed down to the Tidal Basin to see what would happen.
(Technical Data: Nikon D800E on tripod with 70-200mm f/2.8 lens extended to 125mm. Five separate exposures at varying speeds (0.3 to 0.8 sec) @f/8, ISO 400; Images merged in Photoshop during post processing)
I started shooting about 10 minutes after sunset and stopped about 55 minutes after sunset. The best results were at about the 35 minute mark, seen above. Those looking closely will see the three spires of the USAF Memorial on the right side of the image.
Keep Shooting….
photographybykent 
Lovely image and the ombre of colors is just wonderful. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Susan. Yes, the colors were nice. I was a little worried about the clear skies when I got there but, as often happens, Mother Nature had something special in mind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very nice Robin the Crescent really perfects the photo in my opinion, nicely planned.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Kenny. I appreciate your comments.
LikeLiked by 2 people
beautiful work! such luck for Friday the 13th!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Janice. Yes, it really worked out well. And I was the only one out there with a tripod. Quite different than seven months ago when the cherry blossoms were at peak.
LikeLiked by 1 person
you are one of the few I know that follows the moon, and plans for placement in your images. just one of the things that makes your images special.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nicely done Robin! Michele
Sent from my iPad
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Michele!
LikeLike
Beautiful capture! I finally added TPE to my arsenal, but haven’t experimented much with it yet. It certainly can be helpful with planning a shoot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the comment. Yes, the TPE app can be a big help in finding opportunities. An upcoming opportunity for practice is the full moon on November 25.
LikeLike
Superb, Robin! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! I appreciate your visiting and your thoughts.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! Beautiful photo, Robin. I can tell that you know Tidal Basin very well 😉
Thanks for the info about TPE. I don’t think I can ever learn that, but still I like to know just in case. Ha.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks very much for your kind words. If you ever want to give TPE a try, here is the link to a pretty good overview of the current version on an iPhone. It works pretty much the same on other devces. http://photoephemeris.com/tpe-30-for-ios-overview-part-1
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ahhh oooo….this is just gorgeous! you know how I love color. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Laura. Yes, the evening sky was very special that night.
LikeLiked by 1 person