I came across this beautiful lunar moth (actius luna) while doing my morning chores in the yard. The day promises to be in the 90's and I wanted to get the work done early, before the heat hit hard. The moth was perched on the leg of a chair, in the bright sun, too bright for a good image. I gingerly moved the chair into the shade to get better natural lighting. Lucky for me, the move did not disturb the moth at all. Otherwise, I would have had to chase it around the yard until it landed again.
| Exposure | 0.01 sec (1/100) |
|---|---|
| Aperture | f/5.6 |
| Focal Length | 55 mm |
| ISO Speed | 160 |
The white around the neck (do moths have necks?) is a little blown out. Otherwise, I am very happy with the image.
I then returned and re-shot the image after making some adjustments to properly expose for the white. The result is this darker image that I also think works pretty well.
| Exposure | 0.003 sec (1/320) |
|---|---|
| Aperture | f/5.6 |
| Focal Length | 55 mm |
| ISO Speed | 100 |
| Exposure Bias | -2 EV |
One of my regular readers (my Uncle Eddy) asked if I had any images showing the rest of the moth. Here you go John Edward. I present to you, the entire moth!
The moth is approximately 6 inches in length and close to 4 1/2 or 5 inches across. Pretty good sized specimen.
tim mcmurdo 
Beautiful Shots Tim. I’m amazed that it stayed there long enough to pose for all of the angles!!
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Thank you Mike. I was really sure he/she would fly off before I could get the shots. However, the bug was still there and hour later. Maybe he was sleeping?
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