The Moon on May 30, 2025

Out here in the Pacific Northwest, we are in the midst of a brief springtime heat wave. After an afternoon in the 90s, temperatures started to cool nicely as evening set in. My wife spotted a nice waxing crescent Moon in the sky, and I thought it would be good to dust off the Questar—I’m embarrassed to admit it hasn’t seen much action in the past month or two—and have a look at our lunar neighbor.

In spite of the hot conditions earlier today, the seeing was actually very steady. With my Canon EOS M50 coupled with my Questar, I was able to capture a decently resolved image of the Moon.

In postproduction, I pulled back on exposure by one-third of a stop and decreased highlights so that the illuminated limb didn’t appear so blown out, increased shadow brightness to help out terminator detail, and increased contrast just a touch.

Late May seems to be the time we start to get mosquitos around here. With shorts on, I had one dancing around my ankle. Mosquitos sure love astronomers—what better target is there for a pest than someone staring into an eyepiece totally oblivious to anything else?