Astrophoto: Crescent Moon by Gustavo Sanchez

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This photo of the crescent Moon was captured by Gustavo Sanchez from his house in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico on March 9, 2011.

The illumination of the Moon’s night side, also known as Earthshine is the result of the reflection of the Sun’s light on the Earth’s surface. It can be readily observed shortly before and after a New Moon.

Gustavo provided us with the camera specs he implemented:

“The image is a single shot 30 second exposure, ISO 100, and daylight white blance, taken with a Sony A33 SLT camera and a 4.7″ inch achromatic refractor (Celestron Omni XLT 120) using an imaging technique known as “prime focus”, where the telescope itself is the lens of the camera. The camera and telescope were mounted on a medium equatorial mount (Orion Sirius EQ-G) with tracking capability. There is no further post-processing done to the image, just resizing.”

Check out Gustavo’s Flickr photostream here.

(via universetoday)