The Enchanting Light of a Waxing Gibbous Titanium Moon
Alqueva´s Dark Sky Reserve | By Year: 2026 | Moonlight Scenes | The Moon
I love the Moon and to celebrate the achievement of Artemis II mission I decided to get back to the Moon myself and photograph it, revealling the beauty of a Waxing Gibbous Moon as an HDR scene captured on 1st March 2026 with the new Edge11 and a Poseidon-C Pro camera. The moon is more then a grey body as it is normally perceived by our human eye. The color of this RGB image have been slightly increased revelling a strange but even so, real appearance, corresponding to the differences in the chemical constitution of the lunar surface, as changes in mineral content can produce subtle color differences in reflected light. The blue hues that can be seen on the seas like “Mare Tranquillitatis”, or “Mare Fecunditatis” are revelling rich areas in titanium. According to Hawai’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, the presence of this unusual titanium-rich layer was produced by the crystallization of a huge ocean of magma that surrounded the Moon when it formed. In the bottom center of the Moon, white stripes are radiating across the southern lunar highlands, coming from the 85 kilometer wide crater Tycho. In the past, multicolor images calibrated by rock samples from the Apollo missions, were recorded by Galileo and Celmentine spacecrafts and been used to explore the Moon’s global surface composition.
PT: Adoro a Lua e para celebrar o sucesso da missão Artemis II, decidi voltar à Lua e fotografá-la, revelando a beleza de uma Lua crescente gibosa numa cena HDR captada a 1 de março de 2026 com o novo Edge11 e uma câmara Poseidon-C Pro. A Lua é mais do que um corpo cinzento como normalmente a percebemos. A cor desta imagem RGB foi ligeiramente realçada, revelando um aspeto estranho, mas ainda assim real, que corresponde às diferenças na composição química da superfície lunar, uma vez que as alterações no conteúdo mineral podem produzir subtis diferenças de cor na luz refletida. Os tons azuis que podem ser observados em mares como o “Mare Tranquillitatis” ou o “Mare Fecunditatis” revelam áreas ricas em titânio. De acordo com o Hawai’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, a presença dessa camada incomum rica em titânio foi produzida pela cristalização de um enorme oceano de magma que cercou a Lua quando ela se formou. No centro da Lua, faixas esbranquiçadas espalham-se de forma raiada pelas terras altas lunares do sul, vindas da cratera Tycho, com 85 quilómetros de largura. No passado, imagens multi-coloridas calibradas por amostras de rochas das missões Apollo foram registadas pelas sondas espaciais Galileo e Celmentine e usadas para explorar a composição da superfície global da Lua.
Technical details | Detalhes Técnicos
Celestron EDGE HD 11″ | Poseidon-C Pro Camera from Player One Astronomy | SW CQ350 | Mosaic of two panels composed by 200 images each. Cumeada Observatory from Dark Sky® Alqueva Reserve, Reguengos de Monsaraz.
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