Cellphone shot of Orion Constellation

My First Moon Photos

My First Moon Photos

 
Whenever we look at the heavens, the night sky, a silver light snatches our attention from our busy life to a shiny ball. That ball is nothing but our Earth's only natural satellite, the moon.
When I was gifted my telescope by my parents, the very first celestial object that I saw was, yes! you guessed it right!, 'The Moon'. I used my 5- inch telescope and my phone to take some photos of the Moon.

Below are some of my first moon photos and moon facts :-

The Moon: Facts

The Moon is the fifth largest natural satellite in our solar system. It is in synchronous rotation with Earth which means we will always see the same side of its surface. It is the second brightest astronomical object seen from the Earth, after the Sun. Its gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and the slight lengthening of the day.

The Moon: Formation

According to the widely accepted, the Giant-Impact Hypothesis, also called the Big Splash, or the Theia Impact the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from a collision between Earth and an astronomical body which was the size of Mars, approximately 4.5 billion years age, in the Hadean eon; about 20 to 100 million years after the solar system coalesced.

The Moon: Photos

Camera- Phone (Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime) 
Telescope- Celestron Astromaster 130

Eyepiece- 10 mm

ISO- 160

Exposure Time- 1/33 seconds

Stacking- No

Post Processing- No

As you can see, there are craters and large dark surfaces on the moon.
These craters are formed due to meteor impacts on the lunar surface (the Moon is also called as Luna and hence lunar surface). Most of these craters were formed millions of years ago!
The large dark surfaces were formed due to ancient volcanic eruptions. These dark basaltic plains are called Lunar mare.

Camera- Phone (Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime)
Telescope- Celestron Astromaster 130

Eyepiece- 10 mm

ISO- 160

Exposure Time- 1/20 seconds

Stacking- No

Post Processing- No

Some lunar photography tips

The lunar surface is actually dark but since it reflects most of the sun-light falling on it, its photos get overexposed as you can see in the above photos.
One needs special preparations to get a decent photo of the Moon and these are :-

• low ISO
• very small exposure time
• lunar filters and,
• Of course practice!

Clear Skies!