Wednesday, October 20, was the full moon, the third phase of the lunar cycle. Various full moons get fancy-sounding names like “pink moon” or “beaver moon”. These don’t necessarily have a scientific reason; however, the full moon did have practical usage in keeping track of the passage of time before the industrial era. 

A full moon in October is called the Hunter’s or Harvest Moon and traditionally signaled the beginning of preparations for the long and cold winter in the northern hemisphere. This usually means collecting and preparing food that cannot be grown in winter for long-term storage.

Full moons aren’t the best times to observe with a telescope because the complete illumination washes out the fine details on the Moon and the faint deep sky objects close to the Moon. Objects opposite the Moon will be less affected by the Moon’s glare. A full moon is really the time to practice your landscape astrophotography, taking pictures of ground features that happen to have something in space in the background. The full moon provides a good subject for this genre of astrophotography because it’s big and bright. Also, you can make out lots of surface detail with a short focal length.

Landscape astrophotography is also a good way to get into the hobby as a whole. The equipment it requires is minimal, unlike the “massive telescope on a tracking mount with a special camera” of deep sky or planetary astrophotography. That equipment will run you thousands of dollars in the long run, so it’s always better to start off spending less money first to decide if you want to get further into the hobby.

In this case, all you need is a camera with a wide or normal focal length lens (25-50mm depending on your camera’s sensor size), a tripod, and a remote shutter release cable. As you may recall from the last What’s Up, this is similar equipment to what is used for taking pictures of meteor showers, but for landscapes, you want a little bit more focal length. This will give you more detail of the object in the sky but still allow you to have a terrestrial foreground.

Interesting photo compositions place the full moon on the intersection of two third lines. If you want to try something more advanced, try lining up the composition so the Moon is on one intersection and a terrestrial object is at the diagonally opposite intersection. This uses one of the basic rules of photography – the rule of thirds to make an interesting composition of Earth and space. You can estimate this or turn on a grid on your camera’s screen to help with framing. Consult your camera’s manual to see if it has this feature.

Besides the Moon, there are some deep-sky objects that also make for interesting landscape targets, including Messier 31 the Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 45 the Pleiades Star Cluster, and NGC 884 and 869, the Double Cluster. M31 and M45 are well known but you may not have heard of the Double Cluster.

The Double Cluster is a pair of large open clusters in between the constellations of Cassiopeia and Perseus. You’re missing out because it’s so easy to find and a rewarding object to observe. First, find the bright star Algol in the constellation Perseus. Go north until you see the “W” asterism that is Cassiopeia. Then, just south of the two middle stars in the W, is the Double Cluster. Once you find it, you can frame it with a foreground object such as a tree or building, remembering the rule of thirds.

Looking at the Double Cluster with a small telescope at low power, with a 25 to 30mm eyepiece, is also a rewarding experience, especially if you are a beginner. So go out and enjoy the wonder of the night sky, and if you do take any landscape photographs, please make sure you share them with us on social media or in our Discord.

More Information

The Hunter’s Moon Is October’s Full Moon (timeanddate)

Taking Pictures of the Moon (timeanddate)

Double Cluster in Perseus on October evenings (EarthSky)