I love observing the moon as much as any astronomer, but let’s face it, Luna poses a real and regular problem for night sky observing. A daytime moon is a different story – (almost) equal opportunity for lunar landscape browsing without all that bothersome moonlight to diminish the fainter deep sky objects! (You can click the image for a full-size version and click the x to close.)
Now see, isn’t the moon just as lovely in a sunlit sky? I took this image yesterday, when the moon was at 94% illuminated – nearly full. In North America, March’s full moon is traditionally known as Full Crow Moon, Full Crust Moon, Full Sugar Moon, and Full Sap Moon. Knowing that these names originated with the Native American culture, you can probably guess what each one references.
Image Specs: Canon XTi/400D, f/5.6, 1/800 sec., ISO-100, 300mm, two images stacked – 1 w/ foreground focus, 1 w/ background focus.
Coincidentally, as I write this, the Kepler Mission team is announcing on Twitter that the Kepler craft just passed the Moon’s orbit, as it makes it way out of the Earth-Moon system. Go Kepler!
