Luna at 6 Days Old

As my astronomy friends know, I've never been much of a lunar fan. Now there's nothing wrong with the moon. I mean, it's actually quite remarkable. And while none of us has ever seen any other than the same face of the moon, the play of shadows at differing phases makes for an always changing perspective that is good for a lifetime of observation.

For me, when the moon is out, it's harder to see all the faint deep sky objects that I like to photograph and observe. So, it's not so much that I don't appreciate good ol' Luna, but rather that I desire to see other objects more.

But in the early process of setting up the TOA-150/AP900 combo at the house, I thought I'd catch this simple shot of the moon, taken through a hydrogen-alpha filter for increased contrast - also functioning as a neutral density filter for the very sensitive STL-6303e camera.

It's just a single image of .01 seconds, taken at the full 1100mm focal length of the TOA-150 (f/7.3). Processed in Photoshop CS2 to bring out increased contrast and sharpened to really make the craters "pop," even away from the terminator.

I'll add the image to the main site soon, but for now, I hope you enjoy it here on the blog.