I stand in my driveway after dark, with my camera and large 500mm lens in hand, for the second night in a row. I have pre-focused the lens and preset the exposure for the almost full moon. My neighbor finds the scene mildly amusing as he passes by after putting out his recycling. 

To photograph an airplane crossing in front of the moon you need several things to line up just right. I have watched the large airliners traveling the air traffic control routes over Long Island Sound as they start their approach into New York City. I have seen that the moon rises straight through these routes and have many, many times tried to capture a plane crossing the moon. I am also using an app on my smartphone that shows live air traffic control data from plane transponders, so I can track the inbound and outbound aircraft traveling through the very small patch of sky containing the moon. I track incoming planes and wait. Patience and pre-planning are key, but the last and most elusive element is luck. 

Just after 9 p.m. a smaller Gulfstream IV lines up with the moon, and as I track it through the camera it crosses the moon’s southern tip. The preparation pays off and I get a few frames off before the jet streaks back into the darkness. 

I am happy but not content. I wanted a jumbo. A Boeing 747 or an Airbus A380. It is however getting late and I have been at this for over a half hour, so I check the app. Coming over Providence, the app is tracking a Lufthansa MD-11 cargo plane. The track is saying that it will pass overhead, but I figure I’ll wait it out before heading in for the night. At around 9:04 p.m. I see the anti-collision lights of the plane come into view and watch as it gets closer. My cellphone says the track has shifted just west of the original path, and as it approaches the coast the plane makes the turn for Long Island Sound. I have double checked my camera settings and now actively track the plane through the camera until the viewfinder starts to glow from the moon. It is a perfect line-up. I rattle off more than 12 frames, 9 of which are usable images. After many years of trying, I have landed the plane-and-moon shot. I run inside and transmit it off the The Day for the next day’s paper. 

Photos of planes passing in front of the moon are not new, and depending upon where you live they are actually quite common. I am both an aviation and astronomy enthusiast, so a combination of the two has been one of those shots that I have wanted to take for myself. Technology has only made it easier, but the amount of planning that it takes to do the shot right does take time. You do not want to be fumbling with your camera gear when the lucky moment arrives. 

And to put how much sky the moon takes up into perspective, this was a super moon, meaning the moon was making its closest pass to the Earth while traveling in its elliptical orbit. Even so, as American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson points out, even with a super moon the entirety of the moon can be seen while looking at it through a drinking straw.