It got too small before someone told me the moon was out tonight

Hanging out in Facebook is time consuming. But it’s a wonderful source of ideas too. For instance, next Tuesday’s column was inspired by a nostalgic conversation with a cousin-in-law. A conversation in a comment thread in Facebook, believe it or not. What about? You’ll have to wait until Tuesday. I submitted it for Thursday’s column but it turns out there will be no issue on Maundy Thursday.

Then, about an hour ago, the moon was mentioned.

The moon? Camera time.

Except for the addition of my signature, the image above was not photoshopped at all. The palm tree is about 20 feet overhead. And, yes, I used a tripod.

Why do the leaves of the palm tree appear golden? There’s a street lamp to the left which I excluded from the frame.

What’s the tiny white dot on the left side of the photo? A star. A far away star. Or, maybe, the trace of a star. Remember grade school science and light years? Or is it about the speed of light?

How do you get those rays to appear around the moon instead of merely getting a creamy sphere? Here is the EXIF data:

Shutter Speed: 10.0
Aperture Value: f/22
Exposure: Manual
ISO: 1600

What alien language is that? Hey, I wrote about them already. Go read.

ISO settings in digital photography
Legal advice and aperture value
Lights, colors, shutter speed and aperture value