Downtown Hawk Family and the Moon

[stephen]

Over the last couple of months or more, we’ve been watching a nesting hawk family that made its home in a treetop in a central part of town here in Boulder. The other day, the Moon was sitting just above their nest as we made our regular walk into town for morning coffee, and we grabbed it on iPhone:

We decided to come back the next day with the real cameras. The Moon was more or less in the same position an hour later that day and for the first time, we saw there are three chicks (‘eyasses’) in the nest, waiting for breakfast:

… which duly arrived:

Dad came by with seconds a little later:

After which, it was time for a little exercise:

Bird photography doesn’t get much more convenient than this!

[stephen]

PS. if you followed our Lunar Declination webinar the other week, you may have spotted that the Moon is currently ascending (i.e. approaching max declination), so when we went back the next day, naturally it was higher in the sky when at the same local azimuth, which you can see in the two photos above.

[dsjohnstonwv]

I hear there’s an app that makes anticipating the position of the moon for shots like this a piece of cake. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

Dave