Moon swing: Summer solstice dazzles with annual show

Full Moon Fever isn't just a Tom Petty album, it's also something I square off against each year at this time.

Why? Simply because with the combination of the summer solstice — the longest day of the year — and a full moon, it's the best time to capture a photograph of the orb rising in the twilight.

Normally the full moon is difficult to photograph with anything in the foreground. It's too bright, and anything before it becomes a silhouette. But with the failing light of the sunset still lingering, the rising moon offers the best opportunity all year in the Big Country to pair it against a visible terrestrial feature.

Call it the Strawberry Moon, the Honey Moon, the Hoe Moon or even the Hot Moon. When she rises in the east, Luna is colored thick, orange and fuzzy thanks to the hundreds of miles of atmosphere between us and her.

It's only as she climbs that the moon slims down into the svelte nightlight that's always captured our interest.

I've tried pairing her with buildings, interstates, shimmering lakes and even the Man in the Moon sculpture on North First Street in Abilene.

This time I enlisted my youngest daughter Lilybelle, my eager sidekick for astro-related adventures, and we chased the sunset to the western edge of the Buffalo Gap Wind Farm along FM 126 to see what we could find.

I set my camera to the RAW file setting, which gives me better control in toning, and pointed my 600 mm lens to the opposite of the setting sun where I had a pretty good idea of where the moon would rise. When she did, Luna took us by surprise. Either distant clouds or haze had obscured her until she was nearly just fully revealed.

Compression, the tendency of the foreground images to loom as large as a distant object, made the wind turbines appear as tall as the moon. I scrambled down the empty road, Lilybelle watching me from her perch on the roof of my car parked in the grass.

I made my frames quickly, trying to freeze the spinning wind turbine blades at the right moments before Luna climbed too high.

Minutes later, the moment was over, and it was time to pack it all up and head to Sweetwater where I treated Lilybelle to a chili dog, and we shared a hot fudge sundae.

Hey, sidekickin's hungry work.

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This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Moon swing: Summer solstice dazzles with annual show