Starship Asterisk*

Hunter's Moon and ISS https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53295643442_3eeae27c6a.jpg Hunter's Moon and ISS by Tom Glenn , on Flickr I captured this image of the International Space Station in transit across the full Hunter's Moon, approximately 12 hours after the partial lunar eclipse that was visi...

Sunset at the South Pole https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53247640208_9aac9c2268.jpg Sunset at the South Pole by Tom Glenn , on Flickr I captured this image last Friday at dawn from San Diego. The image shows the southern limb of the Moon with long shadows cast near the sunset terminator. The So...

Moon and Jupiter https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52706264910_e6d273fe79.jpg Moon and Jupiter by Tom Glenn , on Flickr This single exposure photograph (no compositing) shows the Moon and Jupiter at just over 1 degree of separation. If you look carefully at the full size image , you can see the c...

Lunar South Pole https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52694212113_40248c623f.jpg Southern Terminator by Tom Glenn , on Flickr I captured this image on February 1, 2023 that shows the lunar terminator in the vicinity of the South Pole. Interestingly, the most recently named lunar feature , Mons Mouto...

South Pole Shining https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52674426259_cbede60db9.jpg South Pole Shining by Tom Glenn , on Flickr This image shows the southern limb of the Moon, captured approximately 12 hours before the moment of the Full Moon (Snow Moon). The image was captured last weekend on Februa...

Mars Approaches the Moon, January 30, 2023 https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52661468914_47a22ae6dd.jpg Mars approaches the Moon, JAN-30-2023 by Tom Glenn , on Flickr This image shows Mars and the Moon, approximately 14 minutes before Mars disappeared behind the lunar night side. I captured this ...

Venus and Saturn conjunction with Moon https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52646701211_94d158657d.jpg Venus and Saturn conjunction with Moon by Tom Glenn , on Flickr This image shows the conjunction of Venus and Saturn above the young crescent Moon (2% illuminated). The angular separation between t...

Maybe, but I don't think the tracks were obliterated by the astronauts. I think the dynamics of the regolith and the nature of the tires largely prevents tracks from forming in the first place. Interestingly, tracks from the Apollo 15 mission can clearly be observed in LROC images . The article doe...

However, I processed this image in such a way that some general interpretations can be made, including your observation of relative brightness. The image was processed using only "global" operations, which is to say that every operation was applied equally across the frame and there were ...

That is such an attractive image........ What I find mystifying is the fact that Mars looks darker than the Moon. It appears to reflect light less efficiently than the Earth's Moon. Ann, thanks for your nice comment about the image. I share your fascination about the perceived difference in brightn...

Mars rises above the lunar limb https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52549802792_347d9db6e1.jpg Mars rises above the lunar limb by Tom Glenn , on Flickr I captured this image on the evening of December 7, 2022, from San Diego, CA. The image shows a detailed view of Mars rising above the southeastern...

Thanks for all of the comments! Below are a few answers that may be of interest. Just out of curiosity, is Tom Glenn any relation to astronaut John Glenn? No relation, just coincidental names! However in the video frame posted Saturn's pixels are 60/255 gray and the ISS's pixels are 255/255 white. S...

... Why present a mirror image, by the way :?: The image may be inverted by the telescope. You might need to invert the data to correct it. The most common cause of mirror reversal is the use of a star diagonal . These are commonly used for observing convenience, although less commonly used for ima...

This is an addendum to a submission I made last week . I received some questions asking why Saturn was so dark in the image. The answer is that the difference in brightness between the two objects is very large, and so even with a strong gamma adjustment (uniformly applied), Saturn remains dark rela...

Young crescent Moon setting over Pacific https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52186151215_468a8722b0.jpg Young crescent Moon setting over Pacific by Tom Glenn , on Flickr The young crescent Moon, only one day past New and 1% illuminated, sets into the marine layer over the Pacific Ocean. This single...

Soaring with Saturn https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52173927055_d94657011b.jpg Soaring with Saturn by Tom Glenn , on Flickr The ISS and Saturn fly in formation above Temecula, CA in this single frame 1ms exposure that shows simultaneous detail on both. Despite the close proximity in frame, the ...

Montes, Maria, and Apollo 15 https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51884240863_1ee3d802f0.jpg Montes, Maria, and Apollo 15 by Tom Glenn , on Flickr The Apollo 15 landing site is located just below the center of this detailed image that includes a large number of prominent lunar features. Full size im...

As for bumpy moon edge, the full moon picture I used above shows it, but the full res version shows it better. In contrast, this APOD shows a perfectly smooth edge all the way around. Here's a part of the bottom edge: Perhaps it's just an image processing artifact? We don't know the processing deta...

Lunar volcanic activity: Hyginus region https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51871392169_e4b1f68277.jpg Hyginus, Triesnecker, and Ariadaeus by Tom Glenn , on Flickr Full size image Hyginus crater and its associated rille system is located near the center of this image taken along the sunset terminat...

Young crescent Moon and Jupiter https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51859431499_9694ceab52.jpg Young crescent Moon and Jupiter by Tom Glenn , on Flickr Full size image This single shot photograph shows the young crescent Moon together with Jupiter on the evening of February 2, 2022. Five of the six...

In case anyone is interested, when I first published this data back in early December I created a Lambert equal area cylindrical projection of the image featured in today's APOD. Shown below is a cropped portion of this projection, showing the regions referenced in the posts above. The main mare bas...

FYI the discussion link for today's APOD (January 28) still directs to this page, and the date on the APOD landing page above the image is incorrect (still says January 27). This glitch also causes the APOD for the 27th to be skipped if you click "<" to see the previous APOD.

Crescent Moon in high detail https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51141828068_08e7de16cb.jpg Crescent Moon by Tom Glenn , on Flickr The waxing crescent Moon in high detail see full sized image . Eastern limb is oriented towards the top. Image date: April 16, 2021, 19:30PDT Image location: San Diego,...

Stars occulted by Earthshine Moon https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51838135707_9a34177c07.jpg Stars occulted by Earthshine Moon by Tom Glenn , on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/2mYKZJt At first glance this may look like an ordinary image of the Moon, but it is somewhat unusual. The two prominent white...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51826967293_75a0a055d9.jpg A Hole in the Moon by Tom Glenn , on Flickr This image shows the large impact crater Copernicus along the sunset terminator, with the eastern rim terraces still in sunlight but the crater floor completely shrouded in darkness. The promi...