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I shot this image of the moon during the early morning hours before dawn on January 15, 2012. The telescope is a Celestron FirstScope, purchased for $49.00 at B&H Photo.
I attached a Meade 32mm lens to a Sony 7 megapixel digital camera to capture the image. Photoshop Elements 9.0 and iPhoto were used to enhance contrast and details.
M'n Celestron Firstscope, ook gekocht voor Carmen, ging mee op vakantie. En daar zie je nog erg mooie dingen mee! Oa het Andromeda sterrenstelsel, Jupiter en 3 van z'n manen en Saturnus. Op de foto staat 'ie gericht op sterrenbeeld Cassiopeia, als richtpunt.
I shot this image of the moon during the early morning hours before dawn on January 15, 2012. The telescope was a Celestron FirstScope, purchased for $49.00 at B&H Photo.
I attached a Meade 32mm lens to a Sony 7 megapixel digital camera to capture the image. Photoshop Elements 9.0 and Apple iPhoto were used to enhance contrast and details.
About the moon...
A quick reference guide to prominent lunar features
The best place to observe details on the moon is along an imaginary line separating night from day. This is called the terminator. With an unaided eye you get a hint of what the lunar surface is like. With binoculars or a small telescope you discover smooth lunar seas, rigid highlands and countless meteorite craters. Here are lunar features you can observe from your own backyard.
Craters – Ancient impact basins where meteorites struck the moon. An accumulation of thousands of impacts over billions of years.
Crater Rays – Bright splashes left on the surface of the moon after a crater has been created.
Maria – Early astronomers thought these smooth surfaces were seas or bodies of water. They are actually large plains of hardened lava from volcanic activity.
Mountains – The moon’s mountains match the majestic heights of those on earth. The largest mountain range is called the Apennines with individual peaks rising above 5000 meters.
Rilles – Faults and channels that meander over flat and mountainous lunar terrain. Rilles may have contained flowing lava during the moon’s early days.
copyright - Mark Mathosian
Photographed through a Celestron FirstScope with a 32mm lens and Sony 7 megapixel camera on January 26, 2012 at about 7:15 p.m. Photo enlarged so details can be seen.
Moon Phases Explained
Understanding what you see....
Here is an easy way to remember moon cycles: new moon and full moon, first quarter and third quarter, and phases in between.
A new moon occurs when the moon is between the earth and sun. The back side of the moon is illuminated, the side of the moon we cannot see.
At full moon, the earth, moon, and sun are in approximate alignment, like a new moon, but the moon is on the opposite side of the earth, so the entire sunlit part of the moon is facing us. The shadowed portion is entirely hidden from view.
The first quarter and third quarter moons, referred to as a half moon, occur when the moon is at a 90 degree angle with respect to the earth and sun. We see half of the moon illuminated and half in shadow.
If you understand the above primary moon phases, the phases in-between will be easier to visualize, as the illuminated portion gradually transitions between them.
“Between" lunar phases are named crescent, gibbous, waxing, and waning. Crescent refers to phases where the moon is less that half illuminated.
Gibbous refers to phases where the moon is more than half illuminated. Waxing implies "growing" or expanding in illumination, and waning means "shrinking" or decreasing in illumination.
You combine the words to create the phase name like this:
After a new moon, the sunlit portion of the moon is increasing, but less than half is illuminated, therefore, it is a waxing crescent. After the first quarter, the sunlit portion is still increasing, but is more than half, so it is a waxing gibbous. After the full moon (maximum illumination), the light continually decreases and a waning gibbous phase occurs.
Following the third quarter is the waning crescent, which wanes until the light is completely gone and we once again have a new moon that we cannot see.
We got a super-awesome telescope for Christmas this year! We're still learning how to use it correctly, but we've already seen the moon up close both in the day and at night. It's SOO COOOOOL!
We got a super-awesome telescope for Christmas this year! We're still learning how to use it correctly, but we've already seen the moon up close both in the day and at night. It's SOO COOOOOL!