Original telescopic photographs of the moon through all its phases — taken from the Northern Hemisphere with a Nikon Fieldscope 82 spotting scope.
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Four videos showing the moon in motion — from a 3½-week phase timelapse to a real-time demonstration of Earth's rotation.
Drag the slider left and right to compare the moon 24 hours apart. The terminator — the line between light and shadow — shifts noticeably from one evening to the next.
Two total solar eclipses documented with photos and video — the August 2017 eclipse and the rare April 2024 event, which included a stunning airplane transit across the corona.
During a lunar eclipse, the Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, casting a deep red shadow across the lunar surface. These photographs capture the dramatic color shift through totality.
View Lunar Eclipse PhotosWhen the moon is closer to Earth at perigee, it appears larger and brighter than usual — a "Supermoon." These comparison photos show the relatively subtle but real difference in apparent size depending on the moon's distance from Earth.
View Supermoon ComparisonFascinating facts, visual illusions, and curiosities about Earth's closest neighbor.
The moon is photographed through a Nikon Fieldscope 82 spotting scope — a major upgrade in optical quality over the earlier setup, producing noticeably sharper images. A digital camera is mounted directly to the scope, eliminating the mirror-shake problems of film cameras and adding extra magnification from the camera's zoom.
Selecting the proper exposure for the moon is surprisingly complex. The black sky background confuses a camera's light meter entirely. Brightness also varies with the moon's phase — a full moon requires a much shorter exposure than a quarter moon — and with its height in the sky. The moon is brightest at zenith and very dim just as it rises or sets.
With a quarter moon, brightness also varies dramatically across the surface: from the bright outer edge to the deeply shadowed side. It's impossible to properly expose all of it in a single shot.
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