Christmas Day's rare full moon: How to take a great picture

Dec. 25 brings with it something we haven't seen in almost four decades a full moon on Christmas.

• Send your best photos of the Christmas full moon to @CBCCalgary on Twitter or email them to webcalgary@cbc.ca. Please be sure to tell us your name and location when you shot it.

The precise moment of the full moon will be at 4:11 a.m. MT Fridayin Calgary but even by the time folksare getting up to see what's under the tree, there should still be a good show, according to CBC Calgary'sgo-to astronomer,DonHladiuk.

• Don Hladiuk's monthly astronomy column for December 2015

• Christmas full moon to arrive for 1st time since 1977

"As the sun is rising in the east, look in the west and you'll see this beautiful full moon, provided the skies are clear, setting in the west," the starman said.

"It doesn't happen very often:it's surprisingly rare."

In fact,the last Christmas Day full moon happened in 1977 the year the first Star Wars movie came out, Hladiuk says.

"And guess what came out in December of this year, another Star Wars movie, so it's almost like full circle in a way."

How to takea good picture of the moon

Hladiuk says snapping a good picture of the moon should be quite easy.

"The full moon is so bright, you can be in the most light-polluted part of Calgary [or in]the country, where you could read a newspaper to the full moon it's so bright," he said.

"So that's the beautiful part of a full moon. You don't really have to travel anywhere to see it. You don't need extra dark skies."

Hladiuk recommends an ISO of anywhere from 400 to 800 and a fairly fast shutter speed to be sure not to overexpose the picture.

"If you're just trying to take a picture of the moon itself, it is surprisingly bright and you'll need like 1/125th of a second," he said.

He says a long lensof300 to400 mmwill allow you to zoom right in on the moon itself.

"But there's also another thing you can try, and that's just taking the scenery illuminated by the moonlight," he said.

A longer exposure of four to six seconds can create an interesting effect, he said.

"It'll look like daylight, but you'll still see stars in the background," he said.

Tips for using an iPhone

If you're shooting with an iPhone, the Manual app $3.49 in the App Store will allow you to turn your camera phone into an almostdSLR-qualitytool, according to CBC photographer Evan Mitsui.

If you don't have the Manual app, try using the built-in focus lock feature to set the exposure on a bright, foreground light source like a flashlight.

Then, when it's locked in, tilt your phone skyward and snap a shot of the moon, Mitsui says.