This weekend’s Strawberry Moon (aka Rose Moon, Flower Moon) was also designated as the Supermoon marking the closest that the moon would come to Earth in all of 2013. This particular supermoon would appear to be the largest full moon of the year owing to its proximity to Earth. With that in mind, I scouted out the moonrise and moonset beginning on Saturday night. As luck would have it, other plans and weather removed the Saturday night and Sunday morning opportunities to shoot the supermoon. I was determined to head out on Sunday however and was armed with a borrowed super telephoto lens that extended out to 400mm (thanks Andi!).
I wanted to shoot the supermoon with a Marblehead landmark of some kind and settled on this view from Devereux beach with the supermoon expected to rise over Tinker’s Island. As the sun set, I started to lose hope with a relatively large amount of haze at the horizon. There was no telling how thick it was and how hard it would be to spot the moon through the moist air. With the tripod setup, I and a few others scanned the horizon looking for the Strawberry Supermoon when it suddenly (faintly) appeared. It wasn’t until the supermoon ascended to this level that it poked through much of the haze and shone in a great red hue that seemed to lend credence to two of its pseudonyms (strawberry moon and rose moon). With the aid of the 400mm lens and the proximity of the full moon to Earth, it did indeed appear to be quite the supermoon.
