Don’t go out tonight, It’s bound to be too bright…
Posted by admin | Filed under Lunar, Planetary, Z8
Last thursday (may 27th) my friend Luke dropped off his sweet SLR digital camera and tripod for me to play around with on a full moon night. Don’t get me wrong, I love the moon. We depend on the moon for so much, but frankly for a backyard astronomer the moon can be a nuisance. It’s bright, very bright. A full moon makes deep sky observing completely out of the question. I love checking out the moon but I admit I grow a bit weary after a short time. One thing I have learned is that moon is not best observed when full. When the moon is full there are no shadows cast on the craters and everything is just bright and washed out. It’s still quite the sight to see a full moon through an eyepiece, but I think I do prefer to see some shadows that reveal topographical relief on the surface.
The moon was late coming up so I snapped some images of Saturn that I think turned out fairly well.
A couple scope pictures.
Now that the moon is in the Waning phase, it is much later to rise. This gives a few hours of pretty dark skies. I am still looking forward to getting the scope out under total darkness.
