2016 Dec. 21 ~ The Solstice Waning Crescent Moon

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NOTE: This photo is mislabelled as having been made on Dec. 16. It was made on Dec. 21!

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Photographed from mid-town Toronto, Canada, at 04.55 EST (Moon altitude: 41° | Sun 30° below the horizon)

* Temperature -6° C. ~ warmer than last week!

 

The Sun reached the December solstice - marking the start of winter in the northern hemisphere and of summer in the southern hemisphere - at 05.44 EST today. The subframes for this image of the Moon were obtained just 49 minutes earlier.

 

At the time of this photo the Moon had passed its last quarter phase exactly 8 hours earlier, so the Moon was in its waning crescent phase, with the terminator (the dividing line between day and night) already appearing slightly curved. Slightly less than half (actually, 46.7%) of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun in this photo.

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Nikon D810 camera body on Explore Scientific 152 mm (6") apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 SynScan mount.

 

1200 mm focal length, f/8

 

Best twelve of fourteen identical stacked frames; each frame:

* ISO 200, 1/200 sec. exposure

 

Stacked in Registax

Processed in Photoshop CS6

(image rotation, brightness, contrast, 35% colour desaturation, sharpening on left side of Moon)

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Done