Predicting the Moon

[Al_HikesAZ]

If you enjoy a full moon and want to be in position for great shots over geographic features, the US Naval Observatory is your friend. ( dead link removed )

Here is partial moon data for this recent full moon rise for Phoenix showing the time, altitude and azimuth. This moon rose low (0.9 altitude) in the NE sky (Azimuth 70 EofN). You can enter input for any city/town in the US or you can enter for any lon-lat location in the world.

You can’t predict the weather, but with this info and your maps, you can put yourself in position for some great photos.

Astronomical Applications Dept.
U.S. Naval Observatory Washington, DC 20392-5420

PHOENIX, ARIZONA W112 05, N33 30
Altitude and Azimuth of the Moon 12-Feb-06
Mountain Standard Time
(this graph looks better on the website, I'm not sure how to set up a table in this post)
Time Altitude Azimuth Fraction
- - (E of N) Illuminated

17:00 -10.5 61.5 1.00
17:15 -7.8 63.7 1.00
17:30 -5.1 65.9 1.00
17:45 -2.4 68.0 1.00
18:00 0.9 70.0 1.00
18:15 3.5 72.0 1.00
18:30 6.3 74.0 1.00
18:45 9.2 75.9 1.00
19:00 12.1 77.9 1.00
19:15 15.1 79.8 1.00
19:30 18.0 81.7 1.00

Here are some other interesting sites:
( dead links removed )

[Pua]

If you have a nice telescope with a moon filter (moon is bright!!), you can align it with your digital camera, looking at the lcd screen on the camera to get it angled right, and get a nice picture!

Of course if you have a REALLY REALLY nice telescope you can do this with Saturn and Jupiter too.

Thanks for the links!