A nice clear night for seeing. Finally, something other than lunar observations: Venus is bright on the sunset horizon and Mercury is actually pretty high above it. No pics yet, I have to go down the street to get an unobstructed horizon and didn't want to schlep the big binox with me. So I settled in the 10x, which is much easier to carry and use without a tripod. Fun fact: Venus will get brighter and closer to Mercury in the coming week, word to the wise. I hope to post a nice double shot with the 20x around the 28th. Also, you might want to hide under your bed for the next month or so, Mercury is *gasp* RETROGRADE. 😱😱😱 On to the Moon! Fat crescent tonight, still enough Earthshine so that it looks like a big round Moon ball. Aristoteles and Euxodus with the ridge of the Montes Caucasus up on the Frigoris/Serenitatis border; you can't see it here but I was able to catch the tiny little crater Bessel in Serenitatis by eye; Montes Haemus curving in the center; the triplet of Theophilous, Cyrillus and Catharina on the edge of Nectaris, and that line of crunchy highland craters heading south toward the pole from Vaporum still in shadow. Incidentally, is there any song more satisfied with the smell of its own farts than "Imagine"? The neighbors are hanging out in their backyard while I've been typing this and they just happened to play it. 🤨🙄🤦♂️ #iphoneastrophotography #lunarphotography #marevaporum #mareserenitatis #marenectaris #montescaucasus #monteshaemus #aristotoles #besselcrater #eudoxus #theophilus #cyrillus #catharina #venus #mercury https://www.instagram.com/p/CO_slAth6qO/?utm_medium=tumblr
