CURRENT MOON
Eclectic Perambulations in the Noosphere
by Alan Friedman
"The ISS passing across the face of a daytime Moon. Photographed from his location in upstate New York, Alan captured these images at 10:30 a.m. EST back on September 2, 2007, and slowed down the animation a bit; in real-time the event lasted less than half a second. (Click the image for an even larger version.)
Atmospheric distortion creates the “wobbly” appearance of the Moon.
Alan Friedman is a talented photographer, printer (and avid vintage hat collector) living in Buffalo, NY. His images of the Sun in hydrogen alpha light are second-to-none and have been featured on many astronomy websites. When he’s not taking amazing photos of objects in the sky he creates beautiful hand-silkscreened greeting cards at his company Great Arrow Graphics.
See more of Alan’s astrophotography on his website, Averted Imagination."
A 'straight down' view of Aristarchus, Aristarchus crater.. Small white arrows indicate approximate corners of the NAC panorama. Vertical line on right shows LRO orbit ground track.
West wall of Aristarchus crater seen obliquely by the LROC NACs from an altitude of only 26 km. Scene is about 12 km wide at the base.
Click here to zoom and pan the full-resolution panoramic view of Aristarchus Crater.
"The photo above shows Brush Creek rushing across a wide beach at low tide near Port Orford, Oregon. It was snapped at the base of Humbug Mountain a little past sunset on November 28, 2011. Venus and the waxing crescent Moon are conspicuous in the twilight sky.
Times and amplitudes of the tides are primarily influenced by the alignment of the Sun and Moon. The combined gravitational pull of these bodies when the Moon is full or new create higher amplitude tides than when the Moon is in other phases. Only nine percent of the Moon was illuminated as shown above, just three days following the onset of the new Moon. A minus 1.2 ft (0.4 m) tide (low tide) was recorded here a few hours after the photo was taken. However, during the new Moon, the low tide was considerably more extreme (referred to as the spring tide), dropping to minus 2.1 ft (0.6 m) with a tidal range of 11.1 ft (3.4 m)."
by Patrick Cullis
"A view of Indian Peaks with the eclipsing moon setting overhead. Taken during the lunar eclipse on the morning of December 10, 2011. The Indian Peaks are a series of peaks on the continental divide behind Boulder, CO. The moon set behind the continental divide right before totality, but it was still an awesome sight."
LRO Camera Team Releases High Resolution Global Topographic Map of Moon
"The science team that oversees the imaging system on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created.
This new topographic map, from Arizona State University in Tempe, shows the surface shape and features over nearly the entire moon with a pixel scale close to 100 meters (328 feet). A single measure of elevation (one pixel) is about the size of two football fields placed side-by-side."
by Isaac Gutiérrez Pascual
Sometimes the sky above can become quite a show. Last week, for example, the Moon and Venus converged, creating quite a sight by itself for sky enthusiasts around the globe. From some locations, though, the sky was even more picturesque. In the above image taken last week from Spain, a crescent Moon and the planet Venus, on the far right, were captured during sunset posing against a deep blue sky. In the foreground, dark storm clouds loom across the image bottom, while a white anvil cloud shape appears above. Black specks dot the frame, caused by a flock of birds taking flight. Very soon after this picture was taken, however, the birds passed by, the storm ended, and Venus and the Moon set. The Moon and Venus have now separated, although Venus will remain visible at sunset for the rest of this month.
Image Credit & Copyright: Stefano De Rosa
"A Full Moon rising can be a dramatic celestial sight, and Full Moons can have many names. For example, Monday's Full Moon was the one nearest this year's autumnal equinox for the northern hemisphere, traditionally called the Harvest Moon. According to lore the name is a fitting one because farmers could work late into the night at the end of the growing season harvesting crops by moonlight. This serene telephoto image captures this September's harvest moonrise from Turin, Italy. In silhouette against an orange lunar disk is Turin's hilltop Basilica of Superga."
