Having seen the effect of the sun casting shadows across the face of the moon I took the opportunity to catch the latest phase tonight. The moon rises later each night, and it is quite low on the horizon – which led to this lucky shot.
Anyway, after moving away from the Silver Birch tree, this is the detail visible tonight.
I was brought up to believe that although there were craters on the moon, much of it – and certainly the front – was like a big dusty desert. Apollo mission photos did a lot to create this impression.
When I was a child I used to have a telescope, but it wasn’t very powerful – as I’ve discovered the last week or so, much less powerful than the telephoto lens on my camera. With my telescope, you could just make out mountain ranges at the edge of the sun’s coverage, but little else. How times change.
The areas on the moon you think of as being quite featureless show up as being pocked by craters.
Even the edges of the “seas” (or maria) are seen to cast shadows, suggestive of steep sides.