It's a great night for Moon photography. Transit was at 7:11pm ET, and this shot was taken about five minutes before that. According to the Naval Observatory, the Moon is 59% illuminated tonight. This exposure is f11 for 1/200 second. I used my Canon Digital Rebel with a Canon AF 75x300 zoom lens maxed out. Manual focus, tripod, and timer setting to eliminate any vibration. Then Adobe Photoshop to crop and size, and one click on the sharpen filter. No other adjustments to the exposure were made, so this shot is real f11, 1/200s.
There are more Moon shots from tonight in the Heavenly Bodies photo album. If you click on the individual page for each shot, the description has the exposure information.
This site is a great atlas of the surface of the Moon. Click on the photo above for a 1400x933 size image. It's always best to take Moon photos when there is a visible terminator, as the contrast and angle of the light makes for the clearest viewing. The terminator bisects Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) near the top of this image. The large crater in the middle of Imbrium, right on the terminator, is Archimedes (83km in diameter). The pair of craters to the right of Archimedes are Autolycus (39km) below and Aristillus (55km) above. See sector B-3 at the Moon atlas site linked above. I am pretty sure that the big crater on the terminator near the bottom which is shadowed is Clavius (225km). See sector G-3 in the atlas. The Moon's surface is pretty busy in that area. Fans of Arthur C. Clarke should remember the crater Clavius.
LATER (March 14, 2006 12:48p ET): I did a little more research on the crater near the bottom of this photo. I thought it was Clavius, but it is more likely Maginus, which, like Clavius, is a walled plain. Maginus is 163km in diameter. Clavius is southwest of Maginus, or still in shadow in this shot. I found this more clearly in a great Moon atlas titled Atlas of the Moon by Antonin Rukl, Director of Pargue Planetarium.
Comments