The moon as you rarely see it: How a photographer captured night and day on the first quarter moon
By Anthony Wood
Published on April 26, 2026.
Astrophotographer Zachary Cooper created a stunning composite image of the first quarter moon, capturing it as it glowed half-lit in the skies above Yorba Linda, California, on March 25. The image was created using multiple photos taken with different settings to reveal detail on both sunlit and shadowed sides of the lunar disk. Cooper used a refractor telescope and ZWO astronomy camera to capture the sunlit side and reveal the ethereal glow of "earthshine" on the shadowed half. He also managed to merge the two components into a unified image, which proved particularly challenging around the terminator, where the two halves met. The resulting image is a stunning portrait of Earth's natural satellite, combining the silvery glow and long, detail-laden shadows of the daylight side with the otherworldly suggestion of earthshine.
Related Articles
Archaeologists Found 115,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Where They Shouldn’t Be
Architecturalists discovered 115,000-year-old human footprints in Saudi Arabia’s Nefud Desert, suggesting early human traffic during the last ice age was likely limited to thirsty individuals.
A Freediver Held His Breath For Almost Half an Hour—and Obliterated a World Record
Croatian freediver Vitomir Maričić broke the world record for longest human breath hold with an oxygen-assisted effort, surpassing Budimir Šobat’s feat of nearly half an hour.
Letters: Immigration, GOP disputes, Alice the elephant and library funding
The Republican Party of Bernalillo County is broken by immigration, climate change, and animal welfare, all of which were discussed in the Sunday Journal.