Moonrise Over Artist Point 001

It sure didn’t look like a mini moon as the beautiful orange globe rose behind Artist Point. According to Spaceweather.com Thursday night’s full moon was at “apogee” which was 50,000 km farther from Earth than when it is at “perigee” which is the closest to earth in the moon’s elliptical orbit.

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Moonrise Over Artist Point 002

In front of the Grand Marais lighthouse, the collapsed bulbous ice formations looked like two partially melted snow people as they watched the rising moon.

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Moonrise Over Artist Point 003

Normally there are several photographers taking photos of the full moon in front of Grand Marais. Thursday night there were only two. Before the moon appeared the winds off the lake were horrendous. We thought we would have to give up, as the gusts were so strong it was difficult to stand let alone keep our cameras still enough to take long exposures.

Five minutes before the moon came up it was like someone flipped the switch. The winds stopped and it was completely calm. The spray stopped coming over the rock ledges and we were able to capture the beauty of the moonrise without our cameras getting wet.

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Moonrise Over Grand Marais Harbor 001

We moved down the harbor to get the light reflected on the ice.

When the moon moved behind the light, it cast a perfect shadow of the Grand Marais lighthouse across the water.

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Moonrise Over Grand Marais Harbor 002

A few more clouds moved in to make the last shot even more magical.

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