I received this beautiful image today over email with the following description:
“This image was made by Chad Trettin, a photographer based in Bozeman, Montana. His original message says: ‘This is last night’s total lunar eclipse (February 20) as seen from 8 miles west of Bozeman. It was 3.5 hours from start to finish. Hope all of you got to see it in person. For those of you on the other side of the planet or who missed it, there will be another one in about 3 years.’ ”
I’m trying to decide if this image is a photo-illustration instead of an actual photo. What I do know is that the arc of a full moon over a 3.5 hour period does not cover the entire horizon, so I cannot see how this image could be authentic. However, it makes a great illustration of a total lunar eclipse.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? And Chad, if you are out there, we hope to hear from you about how you created this image!
A couple of things strike me…
1) The shadow of the structures and the highlights are all on one side.
2) There appears to be clouds across the horizon…behind the moon on each side.
My guess is photoshoped…
Wow,
What a beautiful image…
I will most surly be spending more time at this site…
Mahalo nui loa,
j.r. lewis
There is definitely some photo manipulation going on, since the moon would not rise and set within 3.5 hours! Just run the USNO’s Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day program for Bozemen, MT for that date, and you’ll see:
Moonrise 5:47 p.m.
Moonset 7:29 a.m. on following day
Great bit of photography and perspective. Thanks!
Thanks for the guesses as to how this image was created.
My guess is the same: great photography and great Photoshopping too! It makes a stunning presentation from Bozeman.
If anyone has any more input, it is welcome. We’d love to pin it down.
It is fascinating!
Here is a link to the local paper in Bozeman that had an article today on Chad: http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2008/03/26/news/30trettin.txt. It discusses how he put the picture together.
THANK YOU, Sarah! You have just done a great service for the Earth and Sky community!
FINALLY, we have the story of this wonderful photo.
On the exact moment of the February 20th eclipse I was on top of Haleakala Volcano on the island of Maui. We couldn’t really see anything because it was still broad daylight, but we gave proper acknowledgment to the fact that it was happening despite the fact that it was invisible to us.
Lunar eclipses are glorious seen or unseen, and Chad’s photo is a wonderful image in honor of February 20th’s celestial show. Take a look at the article cited in Sarah’s post above, and if you wish, you can order the image for yourself by clicking on the link there.
Of course it’s photoshop’d. This is an awesome image but if you look at it closely, you will see that there are 15 moons in the sky… that would be my first hint. The thing that most people don’t understand is the fact that Chad probably stood out in the middle of a field in the Montana winter for almost 4 hours to get this image. Most people think that photoshop is some Hollywood scheme that people should stray away from, but in reality it’s just a different medium. Chad wouldn’t have the ability to make such a striking image without this technology, but on the human aspect, a computer would have never been able to make this imagine a scene so beautiful. This is the most perfect use of human ingenuity as art (incorporating composition, light, subject, feeling, and movement) and the use of modern technology to create not only the piece of imagery that we see, but a scientific model of what happens during this dramatic and scarce moment that occurs during a lunar eclipse. Beautiful work, Chad.
Mike (PineCone)
Big Sky, Montana
Ya I gotta throw a wrench into this love fest. The moon in this so called carefully planned sequence according to ‘chad’s’ positioning (he would have to be south of Bozeman to take this shot) shows the moon rising in the Northeast and setting almost in due North.
This shows a fraction of the original pic that was posted and the orientation of moonrise and set are incorrect relative to the compass and the event
That’s pretty much astronomically impossible. Having been raised in Bozeman he would have had to be a little more north and facing more east and even if the claim of a wide angle is used then Sacagawea Peak would have to be more centered in order for you to have captured the actual moon rise.
Chad … Montana is beautiful enough in it’s own right without this kind of superimposed nonsense
Dear Monkey,
In previous comments we’ve determined the image is a photoillustration rather than a real photograph. Some people are inspired by such illustrations, some are not. Some think it beautiful, others, nonsense. I like it even though it is not a real photo, but reflects someone’s imaginative use of digital manipulation to illustrate a lunar event that for most of us was inspiring.
Thanks for letting us know how you feel. I am sure there are others who agree.
Thanks also for joining us on the blog.
Beverly