Observing tips with the Moon and planets.
The Moon
The Moon is our closest neighbour in the sky. It is often the very first thing most people ever look at when they first look through a telescope. But this initial fascination all too often and all too quickly turns into loathing and disdain as its brilliance overwhelms the dimmer deep sky objects. Yet the Moon can provide a lifetime of observing joy, and every phase providing a unique treasure trove of details and features, can teach us a lot about our own Earth and even teach us about our own human history with the names its features carry.
Viewing the Moon is actually very easy. There are very few technical tips that make viewing easier, and sometimes less painful due to its brilliance. What is KEY to viewing the Moon however is understanding what can be seen on the Moon. Understand this, and the Moon will never be a dull and repetitive place.
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Telescope tips:
The EASIEST tip to follow about viewing the Moon is:
• You don’t need to turn all the lights off!
There is NOTHING subtle about the Moon. Your eyes WILL NOT be dark adapted. So there is not only no need to view the Moon in the dark, it can actually be dangerous to do so as your stunned eyes will not be able to see hazards when you walk around in the dark. Keep all the lights on that you want!
• The lower the magnification, the more painful the image to your eyes. To help control this as sometimes low power viewing is most pleasing, you can mask down the scope’s aperture or use a filter in the eyepiece.
There are many different types of filters available to deal with the Moon’s brilliance. Some are a green tinted filter (horrid thing), others are called Neutral Density filters which are essentially grey tinted filters that come in different grades of transmission. The difficulty with these is which filter do you buy??? Different phases have different brilliance impact, so to recommend any one Neutral Density filter I never do. The filter I do recommend is a Variable Polarized filter set – these two polarized filters are used together to regulate the amount of light that is transmitted, and so you can control the Moon’s brilliance to whatever amount you want regardless of the phase.
• High magnification doesn’t require a filter.
With my own lunar sketching, I use a large 8” telescope, which in turn collects A LOT of light, but I don’t use a filter. As the features being viewed will be along the Terminator, the brilliance of the Moon is more tempered, so a filter is not necessary. On those areas where the shadows are nonexistent on the Moon, yes its brilliance can be painful, but these are not areas where most details are visible.
If you are examining those areas where and when there are no shadows, then a filter is necessary. Examining these shadow-less areas is a niche aspect of lunar observing. Some features, most often volcanic in origin, can be impossible to view if there are strong shadows about, and the best time to view these unique features is when there are no shadows visible and you rely upon subtle variations in shading to identify these areas. A neutral density or variable polarizing filter set can be very handy here.
• Adapt the magnification you are using to best suit the prevailing seeing conditions!
When seeing is poor, the lunar surface can appear to shimmer, ripple like a flag in the breeze, and even boil. When this is happening, the best thing to do is turn down the magnification. As the night wears on, seeing conditions may improve (often happens), or even go pear shaped (sucks when this happens!), so you need to be aware that being adaptable to the conditions will mean a productive time or just maddening frustration.
What to see on the Moon?
Oh, yeah! Now this is what REALLY excites me about the Moon! Because there is no atmosphere, no water, no weather on the Moon, its surface is an open storybook of its entire violent and terrifying history. Like I mentioned earlier, there is NOTHING subtle about the Moon. And the processes that formed and keep forming its surface are nothing gentile and cute, but conjured up from the very depths of Hell itself!
And as I did with the Nebulae article, I will let heavy lifting of describing what can be seen by another brilliant page:
Observing the Moon along the terminator.
Many of us are aware that the dark Seas and Oceans on the Moon’s surface is lava. But how many of us then consider that if there is lava, then there has to be volcanoes too! And if there were volcanoes, then it also stands to reason that there will also be the many different features associated with volcanic activity: lava rivers, collapsed lava tube, lava fields and folds, and flooding of craters. And a volcanically active body will also give rise to other planet forming forces such as tectonic forces creating different faults (sheer and rift), mountains, fractures. Of course, today none of these forces are active on our Moon. But as there is no erosion taking place on the Moon, its entire history is on display, and with a little understanding you will be able to identify a 4 billion year story all within one small area of the Moon, just by identifying the features visible, the forces that formed them, and hence the timing of the Moon’s age as to when these different features formed.
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Which is the best phase to view the Moon? EVERY PHASE is the best time to view the Moon!!!!
A very common misconception about the Moon is that “there is nothing to see during the full Moon”. And those people who profess this myth have never taken a close look at where the REAL TREASURE of the Full Moon lies – along its limb!
Here we don’t see craters or mountains from above. Instead all the lunar features are seen in profile, just like looking across a landscape here on our home planet. And the features, shadows and landscape all give us a totally different perspective of the lunar surface.
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I hope this chapter has given you some helpful tips on how to deal with the Moon, the many different features visible, some appreciation for the history it shows us every month and even some insight to the forces that formed the Moon are still active here on our Earth today!
Alex.