Tonight's Crescent Moon

Tonight's Moon is one-quarter full which makes, in my opinion, some of the prettiest lunar photography.  The terminator (day/night line) on the moon's surface shows the most topographic detail since the sun angle is nearly horizontal.  This makes mountains and valleys show up with amazing clarity.

These pictures were not taken using a telescope -- just a consumer-grade Canon digital camera mounted on a tripod.  I used a variety of exposure times ranging from 15 seconds to 1/1600th of a second to accentuate different details.  The longer exposures show earthshine, light reflected off the daytime side of the earth illuminating the dark, nighttime side of the moon.  This is doubly-reflected sunlight that first reflected off the bright daytime side of the Earth, then the dark portion of the moon, then back to our eyes on the Earth again!  These long-exposure photos are also blurred due to the rotation of the earth producing apparently movement of the moon across the sky.

Mid-range exposures show a balanced view much like the human eye perceives.  Short exposure settings reveal details on the daytime side of the moon that would otherwise be drowned out by the bright surface there.