It rained last night and most of the morning. It was a fairly miserable start to the day. Then around midday, the rain eased up and a few rays of sunshine appeared. Even a few patches of blue sky. It was almost as if someone flicked a switch and set the day on a different course. Tonight I wandered outside and saw that the moon was half full, or maybe half empty, and was hanging low in the sky.

[ProfessorBuzz]

Great shot Darryl! Plenty of detail, and minimal colour fringing - it must have been high and dry. Well done.

[MikeNArk]

Very nice capture of the moon. I vote half full.

[C_Jones]

Nice shot.

[rhanz]

Great shot craters are very sharp

[angkymac]

Having always failed to get a good sharp shot of the moon (west coast air quality???), I am quite impressed with the sharp definition of the surface!
Another question arises from that. I notice the "back" edge of the moon loses definition; I'm wondering what causes that.
At first I thought it might be due to atmosphere, but I understand the moon has no atmosphere to diffuse or diffract the light. So, that doesn't explain it.
Then I thought that it might be due to difference in distance between the front surface and the back edge--a focusing issue. But at that distance of "infinity", I would suspect that is not the reason.
Curiosity has the best of me.
Nevertheless, I am quite impressed with the image! Maybe some day I'll get one that good...
Angky.

[SointulArt]

I am on the west coast as well, and I think the main issue with the air quality here is all the clouds and fog we get here... The area around the centre of the moon where the shadow meets the light is the area with the greatest contrast and sharpest defined craters and features, the area near the edge of the moon at the bottom is facing the sun and there is less shadow and contrast to make the features clearer. Also, we are looking at them more obliquely as well, so they are less defined. At least that is what I have always thought as the reason...

The other issue with getting a sharp moon image is minimizing vibration, so using self-timer, mirror lockup, fast enough shutter speed, remote trigger release, tripod, making sure you don't have lens creep, etc...

Darryl

Having always failed to get a good sharp shot of the moon (west coast air quality???), I am quite impressed with the sharp definition of the surface!
Another question arises from that. I notice the "back" edge of the moon loses definition; I'm wondering what causes that.
At first I thought it might be due to atmosphere, but I understand the moon has no atmosphere to diffuse or diffract the light. So, that doesn't explain it.
Then I thought that it might be due to difference in distance between the front surface and the back edge--a focusing issue. But at that distance of "infinity", I would suspect that is not the reason.
Curiosity has the best of me.
Nevertheless, I am quite impressed with the image! Maybe some day I'll get one that good...
Angky.