The Moon enters the shadow

The Moon sinks into shadow

It is extremely rare to capture the Moon in its last quarter phase, especially on one of the final days when the terminator line is already almost at the very edge. Probably even rarer than catching a similar phase on the waxing Moon.

An unexpected clearing of the sky on a December morning forced the astro-balcony shutters to be flung open and woke the telescope from its winter hibernation. Time was short before the Sun would begin to warm the frosty air and rising thermal currents would start to blur the details of the lunar terrain.

A composite photo of the waning Moon through an 80mm ED refractor at F6 and an ASI183mc astro-camera. A video of 5000 frames was captured, with only 1000 used in the stacking.

#moon #newmoon #terminator #earthshine #astrotheatre #tula #svbony #sv503 #asi283mc