OK- this is simply phenomenal

[Peeb]

This is one of those photos where I ask why? The answer always comes back to Photo Art.

The objective in not a good photograph of the moon. The objective is to create a good picture of the moon. But, instead of brush, paints and canvas the artist uses a mouse, pixels and monitor.

Technology has opened up an entirely new field for artistic talent and folks are getting quite good at it.

So to address the OPs comment, yes it is a phenomenal picture of the moon, an excellent display technical expertise. However, as a photograph it is just another moon shot, though it does capture the earth shine rather well.

This was actually my introduction to the concept of 'earth shine'.

What Is Earthshine?

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Astronomy is one of my 472 hobbies and though I have seen earth shine many times through my telescopes I have yet to photograph it.

I have shot a decent the full moon photo by placing the camera up to the eyepiece. It is kind of crude but effective.

Astro-photography however takes some decent tracking gear and these days it it captured on computer monitors. I have not opened that can of worms yet.

 

[BananaRepublic]

50000 photos of the view we've all seen for years and still none from the back of the moon....

There will be plenty in a few years with lots of Chinese excavators in the background.

 

[K9Kirk]

Looks real nice but I also thought the same thing as Grandpa Ron when I first looked at it, this is no picture of the moon. It's hard to see through all the layers to know just how good the photographers photography skills are good.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Actually there have been pictures of the backside of the moon for decades. I believe the first were shot by Russian satellites. Apparently there is not as much "scenery" just a broad flat plateau.

Since the moon is in a synchronize orbit with the earth, it always shows the same side to the earth, hence the great number of easy to take pictures. We do can get small glimpses of a small portion of the back side, because of the moons wobble.

I have found that like painted art, photo art is not judges by the phonographic details of the print quality but by the artistic content.