Rooftop Weather

I've recently acquired a set of keys for a building nearby in my neighborhood that has a fantastic rooftop. The views of the skyline, of course, are stunning. And it's a big relief not to have to deal with the rooftop of my own building, where a restaurant's fans are constantly spewing out hot and sticky grease-laden exhaust fumes. What's most important is that on this higher and cleaner rooftop I have a much more clear view of the horizon. And now that the nights are starting to get warmer, that's exactly where you'll find me watching the skies. Indeed, I've been continuing the work I began last fall of capturing moonrises and moonsets via time lapse. But this time around I've got the added magnification of a Meade telescope. Coupled with an adaptor for my Canon EOS camera, it's basically like having an 800mm lens fixed at f/11. As the pictures above show, I've been able to capture the moon in all its dramatic glory. A setting Waxing Crescent and a rising Full Moon (all six of the above are either one or the other) are my two favorite moon phases to photograph. They're the easiest to get because they occur right around the same time the sun sets. What I'm hoping to get soon is a shot of a rising Waning Crescent and a setting Full Moon. These two are harder because they require waking up before the sun rises, and I rarely go to bed earlier than 1:30 AM. But there are lots of other cool astronomical events I've got marked on my calendar, and I'm not simply photographing everything through a telescope. I won't get into the details of that stuff right now. But in the spirit of May's arrival, and with a beautiful new perspective on this amazing city, I wanted to share these images. Keep your fingers crossed for some clear skies this spring.