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As the NASA Artemis missions get humans closer to putting boots back on the moon, I’m looking back at over a year of my own moon shots, from my first lousy pixelated photo to more decent later attempts. The story of each picture is in the alt text. I’m heartened by how much I’ve improved, and excited to learn so much more and hopefully get even better.

#photography #astrophotography #moon

The supermoon of October 17, 2024. This was my first serious attempt to take a photo of the moon with its crater details. It had never really occurred to me before that I could do such a thing without sophisticated or expensive gear, but my cousin, who was with me at the time, suggested downloading the Black Magic Cam app onto my iPhone and trying it that way — capturing the moon on video and extracting a still image from that. I really had no idea what I was doing, and this is the extremely mediocre pixelated result. Still, it awakened my interest in moon photography and I’ve been chasing images of Luna ever since.
The waxing gibbous moon in the early afternoon of January 10, 2025. Only a few days earlier, I remembered an old Celestron FirstScope that had been stashed away in our closet — just a small beginner’s telescope, a tabletop reflector with a 76mm (3-inch) aperture — and wondered if I could just hold my phone up to the eyepiece and take pictures that way. This was one of my halfway decent attempts, done with a handheld phone, before I realized I could buy an adapter to attach the phone more securely to the scope. But by then I also realized that if I truly wanted to take better moon photos, I’d have to invest in some better gear…
March 11, 2025. A waxing gibbous moon in the nighttime sky. This shot is from the second time I took my NEW telescope out for a spin: a tripod-mounted Celestron reflector telescope with a 130mm (5.12-inch) aperture, the one I regularly use to this day. Perhaps I could have gone bigger, but this scope is the largest I think our small Brooklyn apartment can comfortably accommodate. I’m still really happy with the views it gives me — not just of Luna but of the sun and even Jupiter and its moons as well. That’s not to say there wasn’t an even bigger telescope in my future…
The waning gibbous moon of September 9, 2025, just a little over a day past full, in Idaho’s clear skies. This was shot with my largest telescope yet: a Celestron reflector with a 203mm (8-inch) aperture, mounted on a rotating Dobsonian base, which I had delivered to my in-laws’ home in Idaho to be used and permanently stored there (I’m very grateful to them for indulging me). My clearest and sharpest moon photo to date. I can’t wait to return there to take more shots — hopefully when Luna is in her other phases, with her craters in more dramatic shadow — and to see what else I can capture, away from the light-polluted skies of New York. The adventure continues.
#photography #Moon #astrophotography
in reply to Bluejay

Ambivalena
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Ambivalena
• •
So nice to see how much you have improved, great work 👏👏👏🌕
in reply to Ambivalena

Bluejay
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Bluejay
• •
@ambivalena Thank you so much!! You were one of the first people on here to compliment my moon shots and encourage me, and I really appreciate it 🙏🏽😊
@Ambivalena
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