Today's Image

This week’s old moon

Posted by
Deborah Byrd
and
July 2, 2016
Images to make this composite captured June 30, 2016 by Rob Pettengill in Austin, Texas.
Images to make this composite captured June 30, 2016 in Austin, Texas by Rob Pettengill.

Rob Pettengill wrote:

Early morning brings a delightful waning crescent moon 23 days into the lunar month. Earthshine lights the darkness of the near side with craters and maria becoming ghosts of their sunlit selves. Earthshine is easy to appreciate by eye, but difficult to capture because of the extreme dynamic range. This image was made with a day-lapse technique that uses 1 to 2 day separation between crescent and earthshine images to create a HDR composite image. Details of the technique are described here.

Questar 3.5″ telescope with Sony a6300 mirrorless camera, exposed 1/25 sec at ISO 200 for crescent and 20 sec at ISO 400 for earthshine.

Crescent Moon, best 8 of 50 images stacked and deconvolved in Lynkeos. Earthshine 2016-06-30 20 stacked images exposed 10 sec at ISO 400. HDR composited and cropped in Photoshop.

Thank you, Rob!

Posted 
July 2, 2016
 in 
Today's Image

Deborah Byrd

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About the Author:
Deborah Byrd (asteroid 3505 Byrd) helps edit EarthSky.org and is a frequent host of EarthSky videos. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named in her honor in 1990, a Public Service Award from the National Science Board in 2003, and the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2020. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.

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