actius luna

 

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.