Sometimes it’s fun to use my spotting scope for things other than birds. Lorraine pointed out that they clouds over the bright moon tonight made a sort of “moonbow.” Noting how bright the moon was, I grabbed the scope.
Even Non Birding Bill registered interest. I couldn’t believe how clear the moon looked in my scope or that I was able to digiscope it with my Nikon D40.
NBB thought the edges of the moon looked the coolest. As did I, all the various craters playing with the shadows of the Sun’s reflections was incredible.
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The details on the edges are wonderful.
You’re pic inspired me to run outside with my binocs. Thanks for the moment of “ooooh!”
That? Is freaking excellent.
That’s amazing! Thank you forsharing
what? that’s amazing!
I learned from an astronomer friend–and found it to be true–that there’s even more “edge detail” to see on a less-than-full moon.
Those are some excellent moon pix; and, indeed, looking at the edge of the sunlit area (called the “terminator”) is often super-cool. You can get views of things like the tops of mountains or crater edges peeking out into the sunlight while their bases are shaded, etc. Also, the moon wobbles a bit on its axis, and over a period of years you can actually end up observing *more than half* of the moon’s surface as some of the normally far-side bits briefly rock into view.
Do be extremely careful looking at the full moon even in relatively low-powered telescopes, however. The reflected sunlight is actually bright enough to do damage to your eyes. Most astronomer types actually use sunglasses to look at the full or near-full moon in a telescope!
First image is beautiful. Reminds me of a Hubble image of the Helix Nebula.
Laraine is correct — Since the colors are all grays, details are best-discerned by looking at the shadows. A full moon is lit from the front, casting no shadows. When the moon is side-lit, the shadows fall across the terrain making them easier to see.
Sweet! As someone else mentioned, those edge details are actually a lot more pronounced when the moon isn’t full. That line between light and dark is called the terminator.
Really gorgeous! So glad you posted this.
Really lovely photos. Looking at the moon even through a small binocular is quite a sight and I wish more people would do it!
I’ve just wanted to say, as a professional long-arm machine quilter, that the ‘new’ avatars (?) for those commenting are each beautiful little quilt squares! Much nicer than the faces.
wow! The moon is so lovely.What a pic.I paint and write poetry.That phote is truly a work of art. Thanks for sharing.Digiscoping is fantastic. We are familiar with it’s use for birding photos. Yet, we seldom think of it’s other use. It takes an eye to see this beauty in nature. It also requires a special sensitivity to capture it. I appreciated the term” moon bow”.This is inspirational and I just might write a poem.
Glad you like the patterns. I like them better than the weird little monsters too. I think the monsters were a passive aggressive way for WordPress to encourage people to add photos to their profile.
Laraine & Eofhan
I’ll have to take your advice and aim my scope on a half full moon. Sounds like it will be safer too after reading from Anne that a full moon is bright enough to cause eye damage.
Wow. That is an amazing view of the moon!
Spectacular photos!