Thin Crescent Spotting.

[Paul M]

Having searched SGL best I can, it would appear that a one time pleasure of mine doesn't appear to be in vogue these days - spotting very young and very old Moons.

Now that I work shifts I get plenty of opportunity for looking for thin crescents in the dawn sky.

Can't say that I'm having huge success but I tried my best last Friday morning. I had been hoping to snap The Moon, Venus and Mercury all in one shot.

I got a shot of The Moon and Venus on Thursday morning but didn't get Mercury.

So I tried next day. Sadly the clouds were rolling in and although it was a beautiful dawn there was no chance of a threesome.

Even Venus was playing hide and seek with the low scud.

The moon was in the clear although not overly obvious due to it's diminutive phase. According to Stellarium at 0.03%.

I got a few shots with my Panasonic DMC-FZ50 - not an astro camera by a million miles!

The critter in the foreground is a worried seagull that had been dive bombing me to warn me away from its fledglings on an adjacent roof. 

It isn't the slimmest crescent I've spotted by some margin. This was some 42 hours from new. Now I've challenged myself to improve on this all I need is to sort out my digital photography. 

I knew  I was doing with my Pentax A1 even if it didn't seem that way

[Floater]

Looks pretty good to me, Paul.

Power to you.

[Pete Presland]

nicely spotted, i looked myself but could not find it.

[Paul M]

It wasn't an easy find.

The clouds weren't as dark as my image suggests. I had to stretch the contrast a bit to get the Moon to show up at all.

Here is an interesting article for crescent spotters: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/seeking-thin-crescent-moons/

[Floater]

Thanks for the link, Paul. Very interesting.

I'm terrified by the very idea of AP, for reasons including lack of funds, the technical challenges involved and, not least, the potential wear on my already-diminishing sanity. But I have a friend who is dabbling in photography and, I think, may be tempted by the prize of overcoming such challenges.

The crescent moon may be something I can throw to him - as one would present a titbit to entice a subject closer - and see how he responds. Is this bad of me?

[Paul M]

I think my limiting factors for AP are patience and cost.

Luckily,as I have proved, taking pictures of the moon with a digital camera with optical zoom isn't that difficult.

Perhaps in future I'll treat myself to a true DSLR with a couple of good lenses. No need for tracking mounts or calibration frames.

Thinking about it, the hardest part of imaging a very young or old Moon is finding it in the first place! 

As the S&T article points out, there are various factors that affect their visibility. The observers skill is only one aspect.

[Nakedgun]

Paul M,

Nice catch. Been cloudy around these parts for a few days, and moonset 28 July would have shown 4% illumination, already.

Moonset on the 27th would have been 1%, which because of the hills west of me, makes the sky too bright to detect anything following that close to the Sun before passing below them.

But, I keep looking.