TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A timelapse video showing a supermoon rising behind Taipei 101 has gained attention on social media.
The photographer, a 44-year-old German software developer named Timo Volz, told Taiwan News that he shot the video on Tuesday evening (July 4). Volz said that the footage was captured with a Sony a7R III mirrorless camera and a Tamron 150-500mm lens.
Volz said his inspiration for creating the timelapse video came after he read that the coming full moon would be a supermoon. This phenomenon occurs when a new or full moon is near perigee, a point when the moon's orbit is closest to Earth, thus making it appear larger than usual.
"Since everybody can take a picture of the moon, and others can do so much better than me (e.g. NASA), I decided I needed something in the foreground, Taipei 101," said Volz. He read on the internet that the moon would rise at 8:30 p.m. at 119° ESE and drew a line on the map trying to find a place with a view of Taipei 101 at that angle.
Volz determined that the Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial Hall was an ideal vantage point to film the sequence. When the moon got close to the top of Taipei 101, he found that it was already close to 11 p.m., the time the illumination on Taipei 101 gets turned off.
Therefore, he positioned his camera so that the lights would turn off just at the moment the moon disappeared behind Taipei 101. The whole timelapse represents about 20 minutes of real-time, said Volz.
He said that this was his first time capturing the moon with an object in the foreground. He added that the next supermoon would appear on Aug. 2, giving him another chance at capturing the perfect timelapse.
On Wednesday (July 5), Volz uploaded the video to the Taiwan Reddit page, where it has 213 upvotes so far.
Timelapse of the moon and Taipei 101.
by u/MagicT8 in taiwan
Timelapse video shows supermoon moving over Taipei 101 https://t.co/o6XLdXOAry pic.twitter.com/k7r7EhmJqP
— Taiwan News (@TaiwanNewsEN) July 6, 2023
