The Earth farthest from the sun on July 4, and it happens to be Independence Day and a Full Moon.  It will be our Nation is 244 years’ birthday. They are calling for evening thundershowers on the 4th, and due to COVID-19, you got to stay in your car to view the fireworks.  The 2nd of July is my best window of opportunity.

I have a trip scheduled for Cape Lookout on the 17th of July and hoping to get some astrophotography practice in. The skies cleared in the afternoon after rain stopped and looked like a nice evening to take some photographs.

I used the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm | 1.8 G for the sunset pictures and the Nikon DX AF-S NIkkor 55-300mm | 4.5-5.6 G ED VR for the moon picture.

The sunset pictures where taken in Bridgeton (35°07’48.0″N 77°01’44.9″W) at one of the fishing piers. The picture of the moon was taken at the same location.

Taken on 2nd July at 20:26 Shutter Speed: 1/60 Aperture: f/8 ISO: 50 Focal Length: 50mm

Taken on 2nd July at 20:23 Shutter Speed: 1/125 Aperture: f/8 ISO: 50 Focal Length: 50mm

Taken on 2nd July at 20:23 Shutter Speed: 1/125 Aperture: f/8 ISO: 50 Focal Length: 50mm

Taken on 2nd July at 20:22 Shutter Speed: 1/125 Aperture: f/8 ISO: 50 Focal Length: 50mm

Taken on 2nd July at 20:21 Shutter Speed: 1/160 Aperture: f/8 ISO: 50 Focal Length: 50mm

The Moon was at 93% Waxing Gibbous.

Taken on 2nd July at 20:35 Shutter Speed: 1/40 sec Aperture: f/8 ISO: 50 Focal Length: 300mm

On the way home, I stopped at the railroad crossing to practice taking photos in the nautical night time.

Taken on 2nd July at 21:00 Shutter Speed: 1/3 sec Aperture: f/2 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 50mm