Sydney’s April full-moon: fall and rise in a single day
Previously I wrote about how I tracked the path of the setting sun over four consecutive days, until I captured the setting sun at the crown of the Harbour Bridge’s arch in Sydney.
I understood that the full moon would occur on the morning of 26 April 2013, which would provide a good opportunity to observe the moon-set close in time with the sunrise in the morning, and the moon-rise close in time after the sunset later that day. At the full-moon phase, sunrise-moonset and sunset-moonrise observations can be made at about the same time in the morning and evening, respectively; for more, see notes about moon phases here.
I obtained the following sun and moon data from timeanddate.com. All times are in Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10); azimuths are measured with 0° North, 90° East, 180° South, and 270° West.
| Sun/Moon | Rise time | Set time | Rise azimuth | Set azimuth | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SUN | 0626h | 1720h | 74° | 286° | day-length 10hr54min |
| MOON | — | 0632h | — | 253° | full-moon 0558h | 1735h | — | 109° | — |
In the quiet morning hour, I watched the full-moon set before the sun bathed the Central Business District in golden light. The full-moon was also in partial eclipse, as there’s a visible “shadow” over the lower-right portion of the full-moon (2nd image in the sequence above). Ten hours later that afternoon, I returned to watch the sunset behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge, followed by the full-moon rising over the Tasman Sea.
With a bit of luck, a bit of dedication, and a good warm fleece to hold off the morning and early-evening chill, I enjoyed making this sequence of photos on the same calendar-day.
