September 16, 2009

Flat Enough To Sit On a Table

image by John Stetson, Casco Bay, Maine

Earlier in the week the haze obscured the moon until it was 10 degrees above the horizon. On Sunday the 6th conditions were more favorable for observing/imaging the moon on the horizon. A fellow observer noted that among the islands we could see on Casco Bay, there was an island that could be seen that night that usually was below the horizon. The moon appeared a full four minutes before the expected time of moonrise (based on the Naval Observatory predictions/timetable). The earth's atmosphere was effectively acting as a lens to bend the light of the moon such that it appeared early and at the bottom, the image was inverted.

John Stetson

Technical Details
Aug 6, 2009. 4" aperture refractor on a Losmandy G-11 mount, a 2.5x barlow, and a DSLR (ISO 200, 1/2.5 sec.). Notice the "green flash"?

Related Links
Another distorted Moonrise by John.

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