Ansel Adams more than 50
years ago.
About 300 amateur photographers, astronomers and other
spectators came Thursday to watch conditions align to repeat the scene in the
famous Adams image "Autumn Moon."
Astronomers
nailed down the exact time and date that Adams snapped the photograph in
Yosemite National Park in 1948 -- and determined that the sun and moon would return to the same
positions Thursday.
"Autumn Moon: the High Sierra From Glacier Point"
depicts a gauzy moon hanging in
the darkening sky above the jagged peaks of the Clark Range. Adams, considered
one of the 20th century's greatest photographers, died in 1984.
The view on
Thursday came close, many agreed, although it was missing the clouds in the
sky, snow on the peaks and the same shadows cast by the moon.
"We're missing
the clouds, and we're missing the snow, but otherwise I think I can approximate
the image," said Lane Wilson, an amateur photographer from San Francisco who
tried to capture the scene using an old-fashioned 5x7 view camera, similar to
the model used by Adams.
The Texas State
University astronomers concluded that Adams shot the photograph at 7:03 p.m. on
Sept. 15, 1948 -- not in 1944 as was long believed -- and that the scene
repeats itself every 19 years.
The
researchers, known for their ability to pinpoint historical dates and events,
reached their conclusions after poring through celestial history, plotting
lunar phases, building a special computer program and calculating shadow angles.
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