The Moon Nebula
By Andrew Clegg

Subject: Moon (with Earthshine), background stars, and passing clouds
Telescope: Orion ED80
Optical Path: Prime Focus
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XT
Exposure: 30 sec @ f/7.5
ISO: 100
Date: May 1, 2006
Time: 9:22 PM EDT
Processing: Levels and sharpening in PhotoShop CS2. Slight touch-up to remove an artifact caused by a piece of dust on the camera's sensor.

Notes: This long exposure completely overexposes the crescent moon, and allows the features on the "dark side" to be seen by reflected Earth light. A person standing on the dark side looking up would see a bright blue Earth in the night sky, several times bigger and brighter than we see the full moon. The long exposure also captured some background stars which show up as pinpoints. During the exposure, high slow-moving cirrus clouds passed through, causing the nebula-like streaks in the image.