Astrophotographer Creates Highly-Detailed Image Of The Moon Using 100,000 Photos

An astrophotographer recently shared a stunning image of the Moon that showed the highly-detailed features of its surface. He was able to provide an accurate image of the Moon by combining around 100,000 photos of Earth’s natural satellite.

The stunning image was made by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy, who specializes in providing highly-detailed photographs of various space objects. In his most recent work, he provides a glimpse of the first quarter Moon of the year.

Through his Instagram page, McCarthy shared the image of the Moon that he made by combining 100,000 photos of the cosmic object. According to the astrophotographer, doing so allowed him to accurately show the incredible details of the Moon’s surface.

By combining the photos, he was able to eliminate the fuzzy effect caused by Earth’s atmosphere.

“My first lunar image of 2020 is also one of my most detailed,” McCarthy stated. “This is a blend of around 100k photos, which allowed me to sharpen the image and overcome some of the fuzzing caused by our turbulent atmosphere.”

As noted by McCarthy, the colors shown in his latest work are all real and accurately represent the appearance of the lunar surface’s features. From the images provided by McCarthy, viewers can clearly see every crater as well as other variations on the surface such as lava flows and shadows.

“The colors you see are real, caused by variations in the composition of the regolith,” the astrophotographer noted. “This first quarter moon also is one of the best for showing crater detail, as the long shadows long the terminator really make the details pop.”

A printed version of McCarthy’s latest work can be purchased from his website. Aside from the image of the first quarter Moon, other photos of the natural satellite are available on the site. One of these is a mineral map of the Moon, which McCarthy was able to make by removing the Moon’s albedo or brightness and highlighting the natural colors on its surface.

Aside from the Moon, McCarthy also offers other beautiful images of space structures such as detailed representations of the Solar System on his website.