Look high in the southern sky tonight (Feb. 24) to see the moon shining close to the stars of the constellation Taurus, mere hours after reaching its first quarter phase. Its right half will be bathed in sunlight and its left hidden beneath a cloak of shadow.
To the naked eye, the lunar disk will appear half-lit, with the soft light cast by the 1,000 blue-white stars of the Pleiades open cluster shining a little over 10 degrees — roughly the width of your clenched fist held at arm’s length — to its lower right. Look roughly the same distance to the moon’s lower left to find the “V” formation of stars of the Hyades open cluster, which represents the face of the Great Bull in the constellation Taurus, with the red star Aldebaran serving as the red eye of the horned beast.
Jupiter, meanwhile, will be visible as a steady point of light farther west, among the stars of the constellation Gemini. Below, closer to the horizon, Sirius — the brightest star in the night sky — will shine in Canis Major, with Orion positioned between Sirius and the moon.
The half-lit moon makes a striking naked-eye target tonight, scarred by the dark basaltic plains of lunar maria darkening the silvery beauty of the sunlit portion of the lunar disk. These colossal features — which appear even more imposing through a pair of 10X50 binoculars — are essentially scabs that formed billions of years ago when masses of liquid lava flooded the open wounds left by asteroid strikes, before hardening in the extreme space environment.
A 6-inch telescope can reveal more of the moon’s violent history via the craters that line the jagged line separating night from day, known as the terminator, around the first quarter phase.
Look 10 degrees below the lunar equator to find a string of three enormous impact sites resting on the terminator. The northmost of the three is Ptolemaeus — a 95-mile-wide (153-kilometer) walled plain named after the ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus, who created his own Earth-centred model of the universe.
Below are the smaller Alphonsus and Arzachel craters. Sweep your scope further south along the terminator to find yet another trio of fascinating craters — Purbach, Regiomontanus and Walther, whose broken ridges cast dramatic shadows over their interiors. Look out for the strange triangular shadows falling over the basins of the Walther, Alphonsus and Arzachel craters, cast by their towering central peaks.
Need to up your magnification? Then why not check out our picks of the best telescopes and binoculars for viewing the night sky? If you’re a photographer hoping to capture the ancient splendour of Earth’s natural satellite, then you may also want to check out our guide to capturing the moon, along with our selection of the top cameras and lenses for astrophotography.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your moon photos with Space.com’s readers, then please send your image(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.
