Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday Photo

If it weren't Sunday, I suppose I'd have called this "Shooting the Moon". Today was a busy day, which is often how things work out for me. I shot this photo toward the end of the day, because the sky was unusually clear for this time of year, and the Moon was almost full:

Image credit: Photo taken and processed by Cujo359

I enhanced the contrast of the raw photo a bit, which makes the sky look blacker than it actually was (it was early evening, so there was still a bit of sunlight).

Something I'm noticing in these pictures is how different the Moon's features look depending how full it is. For instance, compare it to this photo that I took on March 18:

See how the craters are most visible near the terminator in this photo? In the new one above, they're most visible near the "edge" of the Moon. That's not really surprising. In the first photo, the Sun is almost directly overhead of the craters near the middle of the Moon, so they don't cast as much shadow.

Of course, some of this is due to the limitations of the camera - how much light it needs to see in order to provide a good contrast, etc. Plus, there's probably some performance issue with the photographer, too.

I suppose if I take enough photos, we'll be able to see all the craters on the near side.

As always, click on the picture to enlarge. Hope yours was a good Sunday.

3 comments:

One Fly said...

Not bad at all!

David Evans said...

That's impressive for such a small camera. I have taken similar pictures with my (much bulkier) Sony HX100V, but I think none better. Were they handheld?

Cujo359 said...

Yes, David, they were both hand held. To take the newer one, I had my hands sitting on top of the roof of my vehicle, though...

I'm amazed at what the technology can achieve these days. Mine isn't even a top of the line point-and-shoot camera, though it was one of Canon's more pricey offerings in that class a year or so ago.