A rite of passage for landscape photographers in the D.C. area is capturing the moonrise over the National Mall. A favorite location for this is in front of the Netherlands Carillon Bell Tower between the Iwo Jima Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. From this spot, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol all align into one photo. Catching the moonrise over this alignment in the evening sky only happens twice a year (once in the spring and once in the fall). The moon must rise just shy of due east on the horizon during twilight. Getting this image takes planning, patience, and a bit of good luck. This spring (my fourth attempt over a number of years), the weather gods finally smiled upon me. There was a light haze on the horizon which quickly became thick clouds higher in the sky. While I thought this would ruin any chances of getting a good capture, on this night, it actually created some fantastic conditions for colors in the moon that only lasted for a brief moment before the whole show disappeared behind the clouds.
A blood red moon rises over a hazy horizon.
The moon changed from red to orange to yellow as it climbed into the sky. This color transition was stunning to see! Unfortunately, the moon went behind clouds a few seconds later and disappeared from the sky.
Photographers from around the DC area gather for a chance to capture the moonrise. The Netherlands Carillon stands in the background. covered in scaffolding for maintenance work.
This screen shot from The Photographer's Empheris (TPE) app shows the east-west alignment of the monuments, and the spot on the horizon to the north where the moon will rise (the thick blue line). The grey box below shows the azimuth and altitude of the moon as it moves south along the horizon and rises in the sky (skinny blue line).
This screen shot from TPE shows the timing sequence for sunset, twilight and moonrise. For this image to work, the moon must rise about 10 minutes after sunset. This allows the moon to be brightly visible against a dark blue colored sky, with the monuments now fully illuminated in the foreground.
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