A mosaic of the 11-day-old gibbous Moon, on March 17, 2019, showing the full disk and extent of incredible detail along the terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the Moon where the Sun is rising as seen from the surface of the Moon. At bottom in the south, Tycho is brightening and its rays are now obvious splashing across the lower half of the Moon. At lower left on the terminator is the elongated crater Schiller. The rim of another large crater, Schickard, is just beginning to catch the Sun. The most famous of the craters along the terminator at this phase in Artistarchus, one of the brightest spots on the Moon. Below it, Marius is site to a complex of volcanic hills. The vast expanse of Oceanus Procellarum the Ocean of Storms, is coming into sunlight. Amid that ocean Copernicus and Kepler and their ray patterns are obvious. On the western shore of Imbrium the curving arc of Sinus Iridum is now better lit than a day before. To the eastern side of the Moon craters are now lit by a high Sun and reveal their bright rays structures. A good example is Proclus. I have boosted the colour saturation and contrast somewhat to bring out the colour difference between the grey Sea of Serenity above center and the bluish Sea of Tranquillity right of centre. Plus differences in the colours of the lava flows in Mare Imbrium show up now. This is a panorama or mosaic of ten images, five covering the western side from south to north, and five covering the eastern side, taken through a Celestron C9.25-inch SCT telescope but also with a Canon 1.4x telextender to increase the effective focal lengh even more to 3300mm at f/14. Each segment is a single exposure at ISO 100 of 1/50 second with the Sony a7III. Stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw using Perspective projection.
A panorama or mosaic of the 10-day-old gibbous Moon, on March 16, 2019, showing the full disk and extent of incredible detail along the terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the Moon where the Sun is rising as seen from the surface of the Moon. At bottom in the south, the large crater Clavius and above it Tycho in the Southern Highlands are well placed the the dawn sunlight. Tycho is brightening and its rays are beginning to light up and become more obvious splashing across the lower half of the Moon. At lower left on the terminator is the elongated crater Schiller. Above it on the terminator is the crater Gassendi. Above and left of centre is the crater Copernicus. At top the large crater Plato is prominent on the northern shore of Mare Imbrium. On the western shore of Imbrium the curving arc of Sinus Iridum is prominent. I shot this through light haze – in fact there was a halo around the Moon this night. I have boosted the colour saturation and contrast somewhat to bring out the colour difference between the grey Sea of Serenity above center and the bluish Sea of Tranquillity right of centre. Plus differences in the colours of the lava flows in Mare Imbrium show up now. This is a panorama or mosaic of six images, for the southern, middle, and northern portions of the Moon, and east and west, taken through a Celestron C9.25-inch SCT telescope but also with a Canon 1.4x telextender to increase the effective focal lengh even more to 3300mm at f/14. Each segment is a single exposure at ISO 250 of 1/80 second with the Sony a7III. Stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw using Perspective projection.
A panorama of the 9-day-old gibbous Moon on March 15, 2019, showing the full disk and extent of incredible detail along the terminator, the dividing line between the day and night sides of the Moon where the Sun is rising as seen from the surface of the Moon. At bottom in the south, the large crater Clavius and above it Tycho in the Southern Highlands are ideally placed the the dawn sunlight. Above centre is the crater Copernicus with its eastern interior still in darkness. At top the large crater Plato is prominent on the northern shore of Mare Imbrium. I have boosted the colour saturation and contrast somewhat to bring out the colour difference between the grey Sea of Serenity above center and the bluish Sea of Tranquillity right of centre. This is a panorama or mosaic of three images, for the southern, middle, and northern portions of the Moon, taken through a Celestron C9.25-inch SCT telescope but also with a Canon 1.4x telextender to increase the effective focal lengh even more to 3300mm at f/14. Each segment is a single exposure at ISO 100 of 1/40 second with the Sony a7III. Stitching was with Adobe Camera Raw using Perspective projection. So this is not an example of using a planetary camera to shoot hundreds of frames to stack and blend only the sharpest but rather an example of what can be done with simpler DSLR/Mirrorless camera techniques. The result does suffer from atmospheric blurring which varies across the disk, so this can’t compete with the images from skilled lunar photographers using specialized cameras, but it’s not bad! Also, shooting this phase of the Moon in March or April helps ensure sharper images as the evening Moon sits highest in the sky at this time of year for the northern hemisphere. However, I did apply unsharp and high-pass sharpening to snap up the detail.
