Thanks to its different phases, the moon offers a varied astro-motif. In the intermediate phases, mountains and craters at the terminator (moon's shadow edge) stand out particularly vividly. When the moon is full, the lunar surface appears very flat and the brightness nuances of the mare and ejecta are clearly visible. In our latitudes, the full moon rises and sets at sunrise or sunset or at twilight. In photos, the sky then still appears colourful and stands out against the horizon without the moon being overexposed. This can be wonderfully combined with landscapes. In the crescent phases, depending on the weather conditions, the earth light, i.e. the light reflected from the earth, is still visible on the dark side of the moon.
Fig. 1: Journey to the Moon of a hot air balloon in summer 1991. I followed the balloon by bike to get it closer to the Moon but it was too fast. Scanned from an old scratched negative strip. 210mm zoom lens, Fotolabo Club 200Fig. 2: Moon rising behind the woods of Bachtel. Shot through a d=90mm f=1000mm refracting telescope. September 1991, Kodak Ektar 125.Fig. 3: Moon three days after full phase. Shot with Nikon Coolpix 990 handheld on the eyepiece of a d=300 f/4 Newtonian telescope. 3th November 2001Fig. 4: The crescent of the waxing moon. One can see a bit the earth shine on the dark side of the moon. — Nikon D70, Nikkor AF-S 80-200mm 1:2.8D, TC-20E II teleconverter, La Restinga, El Hierro, Canary Islands, October 2005Fig. 5: Looks almost surreal. The setting crescent of the waxing moon with earth shine and a brightly illuminated fishing boat on the horizon in the dusk. — Nikon D70, AF-S 80-200mm, La Restinga, El Hierro, Canary Islands, October 2005Fig. 6: Rise of the moon behind the Swiss Alps, one day after full moon. The sky is already too dark to appear blue on a picture where the Moon isn't overexposed. Best time is on the same day or the day before full moon. — Nikon D200, William Optics Zenitstar Triplet APO, d=105mm, f=735mm, 1/15s, ISO 800, Weissabgleich Sonnenlicht, Scheidegg, 14. Mai 2006Fig. 7: An airplane crossing the full moon ... Sorry, this is a hoax. I copied an airplane across the moon. At least the two pictures were taken on the same evening and have the same scale. Taking a picture like this in real requires much luck and patience. — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, composite Moon 1/100s, airplane 1/250s:, Scheidegg at Wald/ZH, 10 June 2006Fig. 8: The almost full moon rising behind the Swiss Alps. It was a day before full moon and the sun was still up, which made the moon look pale. I streched contrast a bit. Best time to take a picture of the rising moon is in dusk or dawn when the sun is already below the horizon but the sky is still bright enough to appear in color on the picture. — Nikon D200, William Optics Zenitstar Triplet APO, d=105mm, f=735mm, ISO 200, 1/100s. Scheidegg at Wald/ZH, 10. June 2006Fig. 9: The full moon is rising behind trees. It's dusk and the sky is still bright enough to appear blue on a picture. — Nikon D200, William Optics Zenitstar Triplet APO, d=105mm, f=735mm, ISO 400, 1/100s, Scheidegg Wald/ZH, 10 June 2006 Nikon D200; Δt=1/100 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 400; 10 June 2006 21:27:34Fig. 10: Surreptitious advertising ... okay, this picture is a fake. The ballon passed the Moon in a distance of about 1-2 degrees. But the size and brightness are correct. — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, ISO 200, 1/500s, Rapperswil, 18 June 2006Fig. 11: The waning moon one day after half moon, shot in the dawn. The darker the sky the more contrast one has on the moon's surface. But in summer one has to get up damn early for this ;-: I used the Photoshop Neat Image plugin to reduce noise and an unsharp mask before scaling the picture — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, 2x Nikon Telekonverter, ISO 400, 1/30s, Rapperswil, 19 June 2006 05:25 MESZFig. 12: Interval picture of the lunar eclipse with palm trees in Ascona. The moon is crossing the Earth's shadow. The interval duration is 8 minutes. The lights in the park are illuminating the palm trees with a yellow light. I had to mask the palms on moth of the pictures - otherwise they would be burned out in yellow colour. No light pollution would be better. Then one can flash the palms on one picture and get natural colours. — Nikon D200, AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm, 6s @ f/4, ISO 100, Ascona, 3./4. March 2007 Nikon D200; Δt=6 s; f=17 mm; f/4.0; ISO 100; 4 March 2007 00:14:06Fig. 13: The small crescent of the moon, 2.27 days after new moon. — William Optics Zenitstar d=105mm, f=735mm, Vixen GP-D2 mount with FS2 drive, 2x teleconverter, Nikon D200, ISO 100, 1/4s, Ahornalp, 18 May 2007 Nikon D200; Δt=1/4 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 100; 18 May 2007 20:37:33Fig. 14: The dark side of the moon is lightened up by the bright earth on a black starry sky. This phenomenon is called "earth shine" — William Optics Zenitstar d=105mm, f=735mm, Vixen GP-D2 mount with FS2 drive, 2x teleconverter, Nikon D200, ISO 400, 8s, RAW +1LW, Ahornalp, 18 May 2007 Nikon D200; Δt=8 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 400; 18 May 2007 21:13:57Fig. 15: The small crescent of the moon, 2.27 days after new moon. — William Optics Zenitstar d=105mm, f=735mm, Vixen GP-D2 mount with FS2 drive, 2x teleconverter, Nikon D200, ISO 100, 1/8s, Ahornalp, 19 May 2007 Nikon D200; Δt=1/8 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 100; 19 May 2007 21:16:50Fig. 16: Begin of the Saturn occultation of the Moon. Unfortunately the image is not sharp. The lens of that cheap china telescope was not properly collimiated. I collimated the telescope during the time while the Saturn was behind the Moon. — Nikon D200, William Optics Zenitstar d=105mm f=735mm, 2x Teleconverter, ISO 200, 1/13s, Falera observatory, 22 May 2007 Nikon D200; Δt=1/10 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 100; 22 May 2007 20:23:06Fig. 17: Somewhere behind these craters there must be Saturn. Shot in prime focus of the 900mm f/10 Cassegrain at Falera observatory. Nikon D200; Δt=1/60 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 400; 22 May 2007 21:03:35Fig. 18: Somewhere behind these craters there must be Saturn. Shot in prime focus of the 900mm f/10 Cassegrain at Falera observatory. Nikon D200; Δt=1/60 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 400; 22 May 2007 21:04:09Fig. 19: The end of the Saturn occultation by the Moon. The pictures from the beginning were too bad because the objective lens was decollimated. I had to collimate it during the eclipse. If the rear lens pair is just 1mm out of center then the picture is very unsharp and has color seams. — Nikon D200, William Optics Zenitstar d=105mm f=735mm, 2x Teleconverter, ISO 200, 1/13s, Falera observatory, 22 May 2007 Nikon D200; Δt=1/13 s; f=800 mm; f/7.1; ISO 200; 22 May 2007 21:34:48Fig. 20: Moon entering penumbra half shadow: of the earth. The penumbra is the zone in the earth's shadow where only a part of the sun's disk is visible. The darkness is gradually increasing to the center of the shadow where the whole sun disk is behind the earth. — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, ISO 100, 1/60s, Ascona, 4 March 2007, 23:18 MEZ Nikon D200; Δt=1/250 s; ISO 100; 3 March 2006 22:23:24Fig. 21: Moon entering umbra core shadow: of the earth. The term "core shadow" means that in this part the whole Sun is behind the earth, so there is no direct sunlight. — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, ISO 100, 1/60s, Ascona, 4 March 2007, 23:18 MEZ Nikon D200; Δt=1/60 s; ISO 100; 3 March 2006 23:18:31Fig. 22: The Earth casts its shadow on the moon. On this picture the moon's part which is exposed to the sunlight is overexposured to show the different colours of the core shadow. The colours range from brown, red to blue and are caused by diffraction in the Earth's atmosphere. — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, ISO 800, 1/2s, Ascona, 4 March 2007, 23:29 MEZ Nikon D200; Δt=1/2 s; ISO 800; 3 March 2006 23:29:11Fig. 23: Totality of the lunar eclipse of 3/4 March 2007. One can see the different colours ranging from red, yellow and blue. The different colours are caused by the earth's atmosphere that looks like a glowing ring when seen from the moon during the eclipse - like a dusk. Unfortunately this picture is an unsharp combination of 4 pictures with high ISO number because I didn't have a motorized mount and therefore one couldn't make longer exposures than 1/2 second. Noise reduction with Neat Image plugin — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, ISO 1600x2, 1/2s, Ascona, 4 March 2007, 00:27 MEZ Nikon D200; Δt=1/2 s; ISO 3200; 4 March 2006 00:27:32Fig. 24: The Moon 9.39 days after new moon. Just a test picture with my new Vixen Great Polaris GP D2 mount with FS2 drive unit. — Nikon D200, William Optics ZenithStar 105mm f/7, 2x Teleconverter, 27 March 2007 Nikon D200; Δt=1/20 s; ISO 100; 27 March 2006 20:09:56Fig. 25: Craters on the Moon. I don't know all their names. Picture was take somewhen in the 90's and sharpened with Neat Image. I don't remember which telescope I used then: 90mm Schiefspiegler or 300mm Newtonian?Fig. 26: Moon region with crater Tycho and Mare Humorum. Shot somewhere in the 90'sFig. 27: The Moon is covering Saturn. One can see very well the differences in the brightnesses. The Moon is overexposed while Saturn is underexposed. Not very sharp picture. Probably an 30cm f/4 Newtonian with eyepiece projection is not the right instrument for this kind of picture. I used the "hat trick" to reduce vibrations of the shutter. — Minolta SRT-101, d=300m f=1200mm Newtonian, Güntisberg Wald/ZH:, 3 November 2001Fig. 28: A cloud is moving in front of the waxing half moon. William Optics Zenitstar d=105mm f=735mm f/7. Nikon D850; Δt=1/1000 s; ISO 200; 21 May 2018 16:53:19Fig. 29: I was waiting two hours for an airplane crossing the moon. Once the earth shadow was so high that crossing airplanes would no longer be lit by the sun, I gave up. The iPhone app Flightradar24 is useful for getting prepared. Sometimes airplanes don't have a clearly visible trail. William Optics Zenitstar f=735mm f/7 + Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/250 s; ISO 400; 24 May 2018 21:06:13Fig. 30: Finally it worked on the next day. A picture without cheating by stacking layers in Photoshop. Unfortunately there were some thin cirrus clouds on the sky. That's why the contrast isn't the best. One 1/250 second exposure time seems already be too long for getting an airplane without motion blur. William Optics Zenitstar f=735mm f/7 + Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/250 s; ISO 320; 25 May 2018 18:47:53Fig. 31: And again the Moon on the same day, but without airplane, cirrus clouds and shot in the night. It is recommended to take multiple pictures and then later select the sharpest. Bad seeing caused by moving air blurs an image. William Optics Zenitstar f=735mm f/7 + Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/250 s; ISO 400; 25 May 2018 23:17:02Fig. 32: The full Moon is rising above the forst on thop of the neighbouring hill "Gebenstorfer Horn". Some craters are already visible on the right hand side because the full Moon was four hours ago. William Optics Zenitstar f=735mm f/7 + Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/60 s; ISO 400; 29 May 2018 21:24:00Fig. 33: The full Moon is rising above the forst on thop of the neighbouring hill "Gebenstorfer Horn". Some craters are already visible on the right hand side because the full Moon was four hours ago. An airplane is flying in front of the Moon and spraying chemtrails consisting of carbon dioxide and dihydrogen monoxide. Probably I should wear a hat made of aluminum foil to protect me from CIA spy satellites that can read my thoughts. William Optics Zenitstar f=735mm f/7 + Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/60 s; ISO 800; 29 May 2018 21:24:25Fig. 34: The waxing moon, 5 days after new moon. Unfortunaltey no aircraft crossed the moon today. Shot through a Williams Optics refractor with 735mm focal length, ratio f/7 and Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/500 s; ISO 6400; 18 June 2018 22:01:56Fig. 35: After two hours waiting an aircraft finally crossed the waxing half moon. This time with no chemtrails or better call them condensation trails. But one can see the hot exhaust. It was flight Aegan Airlines A3475 from Paris Charles de Gaulle CDG: to Rhodes RHO:. Aircraft is an Airbus A320-323, registration number SX-DGR, altitude 10058 m, ground speed 872 km/h. The aircraft has been identified using Flightradar24 app. Shot through a Williams Optics refractor with 735mm focal length, ratio f/7 and Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/1000 s; ISO 1400; 19 June 2018 19:16:09Fig. 36: After two hours waiting an aircraft finally crossed the waxing half moon. This time with no chemtrails or better call them condensation trails. But one can see the hot exhaust. It was flight Aegan Airlines A3475 from Paris Charles de Gaulle CDG: to Rhodes RHO:. Aircraft is an Airbus A320-323, registration number SX-DGR, altitude 10058 m, ground speed 872 km/h. The aircraft has been identified using Flightradar24 app. Shot through a Williams Optics refractor with 735mm focal length, ratio f/7 and Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter. Nikon D850; Δt=1/1000 s; ISO 1400; 19 June 2018 19:16:09Fig. 37: Double layered lunar eclipse of 16 May 2022 at dawn. If the Earth was flat, so also would be its shadow on the Moon shortly before sunrise. Shot through a Williams Optics refractor with 735mm focal length, ratio f/7 and Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter at Bözberg, Aargau. Nikon D850; Δt=1/10 s; ISO 800; 16 May 2022 04:47:15Fig. 38: Rise of the full moon, which is just at perigee closest point to the earth in orbit:. Taken through a Williams Optics refractor with 735 mm focal length, focal ratio f/7 and Nikon TC-20E II 2x teleconverter from the terrace at home. Nikon D850; Δt=1/5 s; ISO 800; 14 June 2022 22:32:13Fig. 39: Lucky shot of a partial lunar eclipse through a 200 mm Skywatcher Dobson targeting a gap in the clouds. Nikon D850; Δt=1/60 s; ISO 800; 28 October 2023 22:33:08
