The Moon Up Close – A Night of Public Observing

This image set was captured on September 29, 2026, during a public observing session. While showing the live view of the Moon to visitors, I also recorded several short videos at both prime focus and with 4× magnification, planning to process them later at home.

The observing conditions turned out to be very good that evening. The atmosphere was steady enough for fine lunar details to remain clearly visible in the live view, making the session especially enjoyable both for the audience and for imaging.

The full-disk image shows the Moon on a broad scale, with its dark basaltic maria, bright highlands and prominent ray systems clearly visible. The high-magnification image focuses on the cratered terrain closer to the limb, where the low solar illumination enhances the relief of crater walls, ridges and surrounding structures through long shadows.

What made this session particularly memorable was that the imaging itself was almost secondary. The main goal was to share the live view of the Moon with the public, but the stable atmosphere made it too tempting not to save a few recordings for later processing.