MOONRISE TO MOONSET OVER DURDLE DOOR

I made 83 shots (each at seven different exposures, total 581 frames) at five-minute intervals between moonrise at 9.07pm on 9 July 2025 and moonset at 3.57am the following morning. My fish eye lens at 15mm focal length has a 142 degree field of view, enabling me to get the whole of Durdle Door and Man o' War in frame.

The Moon was at its southernmost declination in its 18.6 year nodal cycle, known as a Major Lunar Standstill. This means it rose and set at its southern extremes on the horizon and reached a maximum of only 10 degrees above the horizon at 0031. We will next see the Full Moon take a path as short and low in the sky as this in 2043. So this is a one in 19 year shot! Happily the sky was clear all night and no-one else had thought of making this composition, so I had the spot to myself. Just waves lapping and crickets chirping to keep me company during the hours of darkness.

Interestingly (to me) I could still see the top rim of the Moon just after 4.00am, even though its predicted setting time was 3.57am. Look closely at the right-hand edge of the lunar path where it is setting and you can see how the Moon seems to slide along the horizon in the last two shots. That is atmospheric refraction at work - Earth's atmosphere bends the light from the Moon such that we can still see it even when it is below the horizon. On average, atmospheric refraction makes the Moon appear to rise two minutes before it actually does and set two minutes after it does. This average is allowed for in standard moonrise and moonset predictions. Last night an unusually strong temperature gradient in the atmosphere created five minutes worth of atmospheric refraction.

F/4, 1/2000, 1/500, 1/125, 1/30, 1/8, 1/2 and 2 seconds, ISO 800
Accepted: Hoylake 2025