Astrophotography by Anthony Ayiomamitis

Lunar Image Gallery - Sunrise/Sunset Light Rays

Although the moon has been observed by amateurs and professionals for many centuries, a phenomenon which is considered extremely rare is that of a lunar ray. More specifically, when the rising or setting sun is at a very low angle relative to a lunar feature such as a crater, even a couple of degrees, sunlight may pierce through one of the clefts in the crater's wall and project a ray across the crater floor. Although observational reports of such rays date back to the mid-1800's, there exist but a few such reports and even fewer images. This project is something I started to pursue during the spring of 2003 after reading the excellent article by Robert Robinson in the Reflector (Dec/2002, pg 15). To date, reports indicate that these rays may be observed for only a handful of craters and only during a two- to three-hour window.


Image Details
Lunar Crater Lame
Imaging Details
Crater:
Lame

Quadrant:
SE

Lunar Coord:
64.0° E, 14.7° S

Diameter:
82 km

Height:
N/A

Rukl:
60

Lunation:
16d 19h 54m



Note: Seeing above average with humidity at 68%.
Date:
Sep 12-13, 2003
00:02:43 UT+3


Location:
Athens, Greece

Equipment:
Celestron 14" SCT
Losmandy G-11 GEM
Nikon Coolpix 995
ScopeTronix STWA14 Adapter


Exposure:
1/30 sec @ f4.0
ISO 400
JPG RGB Fine image format
2048x1536 image size
Autodark subtraction


Software:
Photoshop V6

Processing:
Despeckle
Resampling (25%)
Unsharp Masking
JPG Compression

Copyright © 2001-2005, Anthony Ayiomamitis. All rights reserved.