The moonlight of August is familiar to everyone
But in winter, during the frost, the moonlight is of a different nature. The terrain is mostly white with snow, and the moon shines really well, and the trees become shadows.
I well remember the moonlight of February a few years ago. At that time, there was clear weather in Repovesi National Park, and I wanted to photograph the moon’s rise behind Terrivuori. The day before, we watched the filming locations completed and remembered the time of the moon’s rise. We had no camera on that day.
The next day it was almost 30 degrees below zero. However, we decided to leave Lapinsalmi well in advance to be ready with the camera when the moon rose. The moon did not rise at the same time as the day before! We waited half an hour. Not visible… Cold did his job. Fingers on ice, we decided to hand over. We went home to Jaala. The moon had cheated us.
At home, we noticed the moon rising more than an hour later than the day before. Does the moon’s rising time change a lot a day, or did we have a mistake? This had to be clarified.
I dived into the wonderful world of the internet for a while and looked for a solution. Eventually, I found a service where I can get an annual table of the moon’s rise and fall times calculated for the desired location. This service from the American Navy Observatory was good enough to publish it on our website for information to those interested. Now, this service is no longer available, so a new solution had to be found.
In the past, tools related to moonrise and descent times were difficult to find, but now they were easily found. The Timeanddate.com site felt most comfortable. You will find the rising and setting times of the moon and the sun and planets on the site. Besides, there is a lot of other information.