Stunning snapshot of the moon

BB pal Nick Harmer snapped this gorgeous photo of the moon last night in Seattle just by pressing his Canon S95 point-and-shoot against the eyepiece of his Orion Starblast 6 telescope! His crescent moon photo from January 26 is a beaut too.

• [Daen de Leon]

  That is a lovely photo.

• [bcsizemo]

  As a child I knew the moon was a big rock orbiting us, but it never really sets in until you see it through a telescope first hand.  Especially the edges where you can actually see the craters.

  • [travtastic]

    What really blew my mind was when I was trying to keep a $7 telescope trained on the edge of the moon. I kept trying to lock everything down and fix the tripod, because I’d come back later to find out it wasn’t even showing on the eyepiece anymore.

    After a few minutes of tightening, I thought “Shit. It’s orbiting.” It was the perfect mixture of awe and stupidity.

• [lknope]

  Makes me wonder where we’d put the Moon base.

• [Chicago_SC]

  All I see is the back of Newt’s head; where’s the moon?

• [Sergio]

  I did this with my iPhone as well. they came out pretty well! horay for telescopes!

• [Matthew Moore]

  Thats no moon!

• [Songsak Klawnarong]

  Nice pic!!!+

• [Shibi_SF]

  OH MY.  It IS blue cheese!!!!

  (We were clouded in and I missed seeing this in person.  Nice image!)

• [David Yoon]

  We live in a nifty, nifty time. 

• [Zadaz]

  …. And then posted it to Instagram, where decent photos get turned into awful photos by covering them with digital nostalgia.

  Dammit! This is why we haven’t been back to the moon in 39 years! This is the kind of crap we do with the worlds most advanced technology. We simply wad it up and say “meh” like a hipster full of muscle relaxants. Couldn’t actually take the effort to post the picture somewhere where it wouldn’t be mangled for increased hipness, post it someplace where it could be actually enjoyed for it’s true magnificence. 

  This is why we haven’t walked on the moon again. We simply don’t give a shit.  

  • [Nick Harmer]

    You are entitled to your opinions about Instagram. (I find it a blast to use.)  But maybe it will soothe your frustration some to know that there is always an option to post photos there without the use of their filters, unaltered and free of “mangling for increased hipness.” Which is how I posted this particular moon photo. 

  • [dculberson]

    Zadaz, maybe your attitude of belittling the efforts of others has as much to do with it as any other single reason.

• [Dan Allen]

  Ooh, that crescent moon is the last piece I needed for my moon photo! 

  https://plus.google.com/photos/102358539010727514210/albums/5631231815984942369/5631232420649243394?authkey=CLib4ofVzPqmcA&banner=pwa

• [markz]

  A good friend of mine does this too, and is quite enthusiastic about it — he built an observatory with a retractable roof in his backyard to permanently house his camera and telescope.  His photos are totally stunning, and it’s amazing that he can do this stuff from the middle of the city.

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/astroporn/sets/72157624497531696/

  • [ridestowe]

    he built his observatory in the middle of a city? that’s pretty strange

• [DocPop]

  Though it’s certainly not as clear, I thought you guys might like to see a snapshot I took of the moon using my iPhone 4 and a telescope http://www.flickr.com/photos/docpopular/5539126056/
  I also did a series of “appsperiments” using this shot and combinations of different iOS apps. http://www.flickr.com/photos/docpopular/5540130391/in/photostream/

• [Snig]

  Aroooo!!!

• [ryuchi]

  This is my Jupiter (i don’t even go on the field to do this, just open the trap window on the roof lol):
  https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405822_10150439400652098_749997097_8847267_2060772195_n.jpg

  then Saturn:
  https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/229081_10150187151107098_749997097_7195720_3898044_n.jpg

  also Orion’s nebula:
  https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/182265_10150098404682098_749997097_6561500_3504661_n.jpg

  and the Moon:
  https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/181914_10150098402402098_749997097_6561490_2736337_n.jpg

  • [g0dai]

    I’d love to hear details about your setup. Great detail!

• [art666]

  cool. last night I wait till 4 a.m. for full moon but it was too cloudy. without  telescope only with 200mm lens it looks like this http://www.pokackr.ru/tmp-photo/2012/01/03-moon/IMG_3920.jpg http://www.pokackr.ru/tmp-photo/2012/01/03-moon/IMG_3920_crop.jpg

  • [tonbo0422]

    Incredible how fast the full moon turned into a half moon. Or did you hop into your Extra-Earth-Orbit Spindizzy to go out past the Van Allen Belt for that particular shot?

    • [art666]

      that was made 3 January
      this one I shoot this morning
      http://www.pokackr.ru/tmp-photo/2012/02/10-moon/IMG_4093_crop.jpg 

• [Orpheus84]

  One time, I saw a man looking at me, yes, with his eyes. And then, he, he picked up a tube. And he looked, in the tube, and he made the moon big, inside the tube. The moon big inside a tube!

  [laughs] 

• [Christopher]

  I’ve tried something similar several times with my (admittedly cheap) telescope and (moderately cheap) camera. I was never pleased enough with the results to save any of them, except one which I accidentally deleted (new camera and “Hmm, what does this button do?”)

  Anyway this is a gorgeous photo and I’m glad to know I had the right idea, even if I need to get a better telescope and better camera.

• [g0dai]

  Here is one I snapped on the fly, on my first opportunity to see Saturn through my cheapo Meade on an early morning:

  http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/43436884@N00/6841049153/

  It’s not very good by any means, but it was enough to get me to start investigating ways I can rig up a better system.

  • [tonbo0422]

    It’s amazing to me that in your shot, Saturn is perfectly right-side up. It’s like in Star Trek, where when there are two spaceships in the frame, they’re always right-side up — one is never, say, at a 90-degree angle to the other or upside down.

    But Saturn . . . that’s remarkable!

    • [tonbo0422]

      Kids, while I’m here, I’d like to remind you: Don’t just peer through those tiny optical devices! BE THERE!

      Please follow these links in order and be the newest kids on the block to own a piece of the future:

      http://montrealfoodblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/jupiter-condos-update-iii.html

      http://montrealfoodblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/upon-buying-galacticpropertycom.html

      http://montrealfoodblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/jupiter-condos-update-iv.html

      http://montrealfoodblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/is-condo-project-on-pluto-still-viable.html

      http://montrealfoodblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/jobs-jobs-jobs.html

• [Sravani Sravani M]

  One time, I saw a man looking at me, yes, with his eyes. And then, he, 
  he picked up a tube. And he looked, in the tube, and he made the moon 
  big, inside the tube. The moon big inside a tube! 

• [Miriam Rubinoff]

  Point-and-shoot, indeed. The Canon S95 rocks.

• [dogden]

  Huh.  BoingBoing posts this on Tuesday, and xkcd introduces me to the term “chromatic aberration” a day later.  Coincidence?

  …Yes, it’s definitely a coincidence.  Still, this picture has a visible lateral chromatic aberration.  That makes it not all that great a shot.  I imagine, however, that this was an unavoidable consequence of putting a lens on another lens.

  Oh well.  Si nihil temptes, raro cades.

• [Donmcdoie Moratalla Legaspi]

  awesome!…

• [Bakeca Incontri Milano]

  awesome foto. I like how all the craters are seen. Would love to go on the moon and take a closer photo :D

• [Paul Tall Spencer]

  the pic is upside down!