The Moon photographed last night.

[Steaphany]

I've decided to challenge myself to photograph the thinnest possible crescent Moon.

I already have a photo of the crescent Moon at 16% of the Earth facing side illuminated by the Sun here in my Astrophotography gallery, but I've seen the Moon just before and just after the New phase where it was far thinner.

The reason why I consider this a personal challenge is the odds are really against me.

• First, the Moon's percentage illuminated changes roughly 5% per day around the time of the New Moon.
• Second, The Sun and Moon are in close proximity meaning as the crescent becomes thinner it becomes ever more washed out by the bright Sunlight.
• Third weather and astronomical seeing conditions are critical, a whisp of light cloud in the wrong location is all that needed to eliminate the days photo opportunity.
• Fourth, I have only two days each lunar cycle which are prime with two secondary.
• Fifth, the the actual time of the New Moon can render the best fine crescents impossible to photograph.

Weather conditions in August eliminated that opportunity and the evening of September 19th was ruined by cloud cover. Yesterday, I lucked out and was able to shoot this 7% crescent Moon just before it set:


Golden Moon

Just 5 minutes later, as the Moon sank behind ever thinker atmosphere, this was the result:


Crimson Moon

Both were shot through my Sigma SD14 through my Orion 1250mm ( 90mm Ø ) Maksutov Cassegrain, f/13.9, ISO 400. I have more details in the descriptions on the photo's web pages, just click the images to go to the links.

[Susan]

very nice!

[Donald]

I can't envisage the technical challenge involved, but know enough to understand that this is a significant achievement.

I admire your knowledge of the subject and commitment to it. I think it does demonstrate that getting the image is about understanding both the subject and its environment and the mastering the technical issues involved in the successful capture of an image.

Well done.

[agaace]

Beautiful! I love the colors. Have you tried making the black even more black and/or removing even more noise (just carefully not to lose the details of the moon)? I think it should be doable with a bit of pp and it could make the background look less "flat", if you know what I mean. The Moon is something I always wanted to shoot but was always afraid to ask how Anyway, I don't have the gear for shots like these.. yet

[Davee]

Wow !

Awesome shots.. i love the colour of the thin crescent .. its lovely !

Very good work , Keep it up !

[Yan Zhang]

Steaphany,

I really like your moon photos. I just recently started to take photos on stars and moon, and I realised they are difficult subjects for photography, we need quite a lot of knowledge about the universe in order to get excellent photos. I went to your website and found more pictures, they are interesting indeed.

[Steaphany]

Have you tried making the black even more black and/or removing even more noise (just carefully not to lose the details of the moon)? I think it should be doable with a bit of pp and it could make the background look less "flat", if you know what I mean.

Thanks for having a good eye and the suggestion, I have made additional edits and uploaded replacement images.

The Moon is something I always wanted to shoot but was always afraid to ask how Anyway, I don't have the gear for shots like these.. yet

Please feel free to ask, I can point you to all sorts of new toys to add to your camera.