Ideal Contrast Moon
December 09, 2006
Provided and copyright by: Ivan Gonçalves
Summary authors & editors: Ivan Gonçalves, Jim Foster
On most images of the Moon, the best contrast between light and shadow only resides in the vicinity of the day-night terminator. In order to improve the contrast over the entire lunar disk, the photo above is a montage of eight lunar photos, each one having a different lunar phase. The result is an ideal contrast image of the full Moon. For reference, the bright crater at left center is Copernicus. At the time of the actual full Moon (approximately every 29 days), shadows from features on the lunar surface are minimized -- from Earth's perspective. The individual photos forming the montage were acquired in January of 2006 on the following dates; 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. Compare this image with tonight's full Moon.
Technical Details: Celestron 8 and Nikon D70 digital camera; composite created in photoshop.
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