The Moon on June 9, 2024

It’s been a while since I’ve observed the Moon. With clear skies and mild temperatures tonight, it was a great opportunity to dust off the Questar and have a look at a nice, 15%-illuminated lunar crescent hanging in the sky toward the west.

The most conspicuous lunar feature visible tonight was Mare Crisium. A good portion of its ridges were nicely illuminated at the terminator as was Picard crater, named not after a certain captain of a certain fictional starship but instead after seventeenth-century French astronomer and geodesist Jean Picard.

With this shot, I stuck with slow but noiseless ISO setting of 100. In postproduction edits on the raw file, I increased brightness by one-third stop and did a little bit of fine tuning of highlights and shadows.

Part of why I like to observe the Moon during the spring is that the mosquitos aren’t out in force. That time has passed. Not long after I set my telescope out this evening, a big fat mosquito immediately took interest in me. And mosquitos love astronomers. After all, we sit still looking through the eyepiece completely oblivious to what’s around us. Easy pickings for those little pests.