In April 2025, I completed the Astronomical League’s Lunar Program (Imaging). This list provides access to that submission. It’s arranged in the order of the program, which starts with tasks and objects that can be viewed with the naked eye, works up to binoculars, and then to telescope targets.
Of course, when you’re executing the program with imaging, you’re using a telescope on all targets. That makes it easier in some ways, but harder in a profound way. With visual astronomy, for most targets you’re basically signing a log sheet that certifies, “I saw it”. Of course, you could be wrong, but they take your word for it. With imaging, you label a photo. If you’re wrong, the reviewer will know.
One of the surprises to me was the importance of sun angle. I used a mix of stacked, wavelet sharpened images captured in SharpCap, and single images captured in Seestar over a couple of years on random dates. While the SharpCap images are MUCH better, I only had a couple of them. The Seestar image, if the sun angle was right, we generally better than the SharpCap image if the angle was too far off.
Page 4 of 5
Lunar Program (Imaging) Reports 31-40 of 48 total to date.
| Thumbnail | Title/link | Target Class | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Messier A / Messier: Long Tail | Telescope Objects>Craters ~4 Days Old | Two small craters with a long tail west. |
 |
Mitchell: A tiny crater in an obvious place | Telescope Objects>Craters ~4 Days Old | Named after the first female astronomer in the United States, Maria Mitchell was also the first American scientist to discover a comet. |
 |
Rimae Petavius aka Petavius Wall | Telescope Objects>Craters ~4 Days Old | Two significant rilles on the crater floor. |
 |
Picard Crater in Mare Crisium | Telescope Objects>Craters ~4 Days Old | The largest crater in Mare Crisium is still quite small. |
 |
Plinius: between Tranquility and Serenity | Telescope Objects>Craters ~4 Days Old | An easy-to-find crater located at the boundary of the Maria Tranquilitatis and Serenitatis, with lots going on! |
 |
Gemma Frisius: Light Angle is King | Telescope Objects>Craters ~7 Days Old | A challenging crater to locate, where I discovered the importance of lighting angle |
 |
Manilius: Location is King | Telescope Objects>Craters ~7 Days Old | An isolated, seaside location on Mare Vaporum, close by Maria Serenitatis and Tranquilitatis, make this an easy crater to locate. |
 |
Clavius: Huge Crater in the Southern Highlands | Telescope Objects>Craters ~10 Days Old | The second largest crater on the visible side of the moon gets lost in the jumble of the Southern Highlands. |
 |
Davy on a Chain | Telescope Objects>Craters ~10 Days Old | An unremarkable impact crater with a remarkable string of craterlets (barely visible in my best image) |
 |
Fra Mauro: Ancient Wall filled with Clues | Telescope Objects>Craters ~10 Days Old | Barely visible ancient crater wall delivering lots of insights into lunar geology |