Detailed Lunar Images
If you were standing on the surface of the full Moon, the Sun would be directly overhead and there wouldn't be any shadows. Therefore, the best times to view the Moon through a telescope is when it isn't full. This allows us to see the shadows cast by rocks, valleys and mountains.
Below are an images of the terminator (dividing line between light and dark) of the crescent moon, where the shadows are most pronounced.
These images were taken on January 8, 2003 using my digital camera attached to a 40mm eyepiece on my NexStar 8 telescope with varying degrees of zoom with the camera. Each of these images is actually about 10 separate images that were stacked on top of each other and then digitally sharpened to achieve an image with more detail than would be possible with a single image.
