Slightly Oval Moon?

[rizzi]

I took this picture with my Xperia S with no zoom and a 10mm lens on a skywatcher 130p

Is it just me or the moon actually looks a bit oval shaped? Is there any such phenomenon or is it just my phone camera?

Its not the telescope obstructing any views because you can see the glow of the sunlight reflected around the edges.

[Mr Q]

It does not look oval to me (unless my monitor is hiding the effect) and the light around the edges is an optical anomally caused by the scope. When the Moon is just above the horizon, it has a tendency to look slightly oval due to the effects of the denser atmosphere we observe it through.

[DazC]

When was the picture taken? Was it a full moon?

If not, then the moon will not look perfectly round.

HTH.

D.C

[LukeSkywatcher]

If i tilt my head to the left so the Moon is the same orientation as i see it, it looks fine. It does look oval shaped in the image. I think its just a trick of the eye/mind, and the fact that the upper portion of the Moon is not in the image..............you have a curved line meeting a straight line at the top of the image.

[catchem]

I took this saturday with the same effect,

[catchem]

I took this saturday with the same effect,

[Cath]

It's definitely oval .. I've draw a circle onto the circle.

I would say you didn't have your phone camera level with the eye piece.

[Mr Q]

Now that my brain is "tuned" into the "oval", it is clear now. My bet is that the camera lens was not at a 90 degree angle from the eyepiece. The same effect can be seen by looking at an object with a magnifying glass - tilt the glass slightly and the view gets that distorted oval without effecting the focus that much.

[rizzi]

Well it looked oval through the telescope as well that's why took the picture. Couldn't centre it in the middle and this was the best picture I took. The eyepiece was ok because I viewed Jupiter and some far away buildings.

It was a full moon that night and 99% illuminated according to Stellarium. The moon wasn't in the horizon, it was almost overhead. the sky was really clear as well coz seeing Jupiter wasn't a problem (I saw Jupiter's bands with my 25mm that night, usually I need the 10mm).