Earthshine

The two images below were taken on February 26, 2012 from my backyard, about 2 minutes apart. Both were made with my *istDL and a Sigma 100-300mm 1.45-6.7 lens (fully extended and full open) with an ISO of 200.

Both have had basic post-processing including (a slight) adjustment of the levels, cropping, and sharpening.

The only difference between the way the images were captured is that, for the upper image I used a shutter speed of 1.5 seconds and for the lower I used 1/45 of a second. That is a 6-stop difference (which is huge!)

The upper image has a noticeably lighter sky, and of course the crescent moon is totally blown out. The sky in the lower is nice and black and the moon actually has some details in it. Most interesting to observe, though, is that the full shape of the moon can be made out in the upper image!

What is happening here is that light is being reflected from the surface of the earth and is illuminating the dark side of the moon! The phenomenon is aptly named ‘earthshine’ :)