Moon Observing – You’re Probably Doing It Wrong

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Most people are observing the moon completely wrong. It takes very little to get the best possible images you can get. Today, I'll show you all the tips and tricks with small telescopes and with big ones.

[00:00:13]The first time I saw the moon with a real telescope, it was many many years ago.

[00:00:19]Friend of mine bought something simple, literally some plastic refractor like this one.

[00:00:25]And trouble was he didn't have a tripod. So, what I did went upstairs, found literally a microphone stand, this one.

[00:00:36]My dad and uncle had a rock band, true story. Took it, duct taped the telescope, and had a look.

[00:00:45]Until the end of my life, I will not forget the first time I saw the moon with a real telescope, even with a cheap one like this one.

[00:00:53]And one more reason I really like the moon, see, me and my dad, we didn't talk much, yeah?

[00:00:59]He never observed the moon with me or did anything fun with me. So, I'm trying to fix that past with my own kids.

[00:01:06]Always when I take this telescope out on the balcony and observe the moon, for sure, I'm always inviting them, and there is nothing like looking at kids seeing the moon for the very first time.

[00:01:18]So, if you have kids, make sure to get at least some cheap telescope and show them the moon. They will be really really nicely surprised.

[00:01:27]Visual.

[00:01:36]Crazy cat.

[00:01:38]>> [cough] [clears throat] >> And then every time I'm doing outreach, of course, the moon is always the star of the night. You would be surprised how many people have never seen the moon, the craters with their own eyes through any kind of telescope, even binoculars.

[00:01:54]So, always I recommended it it to other people. I've been in this hobby for few years now and I know many astronomers who don't even bother going outside if the moon is up.

[00:02:04]That's a real shame because effectively you are taking away half, maybe even more of the chances to go outside and observe.

[00:02:12]Cuz let's face it, we don't have a choice.

[00:02:15]Half the time that it's clear outside, mathematically speaking, the moon is up.

[00:02:20]So, you might as well make the best out of it as you can.

[00:02:24]Now, do let me know if you like observing the moon down in the comments and what are some of the tips and tricks for making the best out of it.

[00:02:32]One other great thing about the moon, it's always different. Every day it changes, the terminator line goes left and right.

[00:02:40]There's a lot more to see every single day. And if you count librations, then even month-to-month there are slight differences than what was happening last month.

[00:02:50]Now, before we even go and have a look at it, I strongly suggest that you find out a little bit about the moon itself.

[00:02:58]You can get some high resolution map on the internet, but even better, there is this excellent book by Robert Reeves. It tells you everything you need to know and shows you with his own pictures what you can expect, where to find it, and how to make the best out of the moon.

[00:03:17]I really, really like it and strongly recommend it.

[00:03:21]Have the link in the descriptions.

[00:03:24]Now, what I really love about the moon that it's an incredibly forgiving object. Literally anybody can have a look at it with the cheapest of cheapest of toys.

[00:03:34]Even with that uh bad telescope that I reviewed uh last year, the moon is actually pretty nice.

[00:03:42]Now, even if you take some binoculars, still you can have a look at the many features of the moon. Look at this image that I made with my Olympus 16 by 40 binocular.

[00:03:53]Pretty nice.

[00:03:54]Just on my cell phone.

[00:03:56]Which brings me to another topic, imaging. I really like it how you can practice and learn a lot about the imaging on the moon. Let me show you some of the images that I've done over the years with my 8-in the 12-in And if you do a little bit of processing, you can even bring out some really nice features like minerals hidden under the surface. Sometimes they call it mineral moon and you will find many pictures on the internet of it.

[00:04:31]Then there is other stuff you can do.

[00:04:33]With a big telescope, you can create a mosaic, stitch it together, and get a super high resolution of the moon.

[00:04:39]Uh one of my favorites.

[00:04:42]But as you might know or not know, I'm primarily a visual observer. So, I care a lot more on how to get the maximum out of the visual observation of the moon.

[00:04:53]Tip number one that a lot of people don't know about.

[00:04:57]Biology crash course for astronomers.

[00:05:00]Your eyes are a very complex optical system.

[00:05:04]But mainly, they can be simplified to two optical systems.

[00:05:09]Rods for nighttime.

[00:05:12]That's what we evolved them for. And cones for daylight time, sharpness, acuity, looking at nice colors.

[00:05:24]The key here is during the night to keep your daylight system active.

[00:05:30]That's a bit counterintuitive to astronomers who like to go outside in the complete darkness and then try to observe uh bright stuff.

[00:05:40]Well, it's no wonder that many people find the moon very painful for their eyes.

[00:05:48]If you look at the moon with eyes unprepared, it's like when you're waking up in the morning, opening up the curtains, and looking outside at the bright lights.

[00:05:58]Not very pleasing.

[00:06:00]>> [laughter] >> So, what do we do about it? So, what you can do about it is really simple. Keep some lights around your area. The more the better, even some really bright lights.

[00:06:12]I'm typically observing here on the playground lots of lights around me, and sometimes even that is not enough.

[00:06:19]Still, my eyes can be a bit discomforting.

[00:06:23]Then, finally, if your eyes are well adapted and using the cones, the daylight system, when you look at the moon, it will be very pleasing, very nice, and you will have no issues whatsoever. The second thing that this achieves, having lights around you, it keeps the pupil small, around 2 mm.

[00:06:43]It basically slows down the entire system of the eye, reduces aberrations in the eye, reduces astigmatism in the eye, improves color sensitivity, so when you look at the moon finally, you will get the best, sharpest image that you can possibly get with your eyes. Now, the moon is best observed just alone, without mixing any other objects, but if you're going to observe other objects, then you might as well keep the moon until the end, because believe me, 5 minutes looking at the moon, your eye vision will be completely blasted in terms of night vision. You're going to have to wait 40 minutes for the vision to return to the night mode, and that's not fun.

[00:07:24]Another great thing about the moon is that you can actually observe it very nice and very pleasingly over the day, as well.

[00:07:32]One of my favorite images and days of observation in my life has been when I took a photo of this image.

[00:07:40]It was very sharp, the seeing was perfect, and really very pleasing to the eyes in my 8-in Dobsonian. I highly recommend getting a nice day with sharp weather and observing the moon during it. And as I mentioned seeing, of course seeing matters a lot.

[00:07:57]If you want to observe the moon casually with a small telescope on the balcony, it's not perfect. Ideally, you might want to avoid uh heat generating objects like this big building, gutters, concrete, and stuff like that. But for casual stuff, yeah, any any place will do.

[00:08:16]But if you do want to get the maximum out of it, maybe you want to shoot some extra fine detail, then like I did previously in another video, ideally you might want to get completely out of the city and then do it from there. Again, don't forget to keep some lights around you so that your eyes are not completely blasted.

[00:08:36]So, let's get down to business in terms of equipment.

[00:08:40]What should you get if you're a complete beginner to get the most out of the moon?

[00:08:44]Well, it starts simple.

[00:08:48]Binoculars. You just need some kind of binoculars.

[00:08:51]But pro tip, it's a lot more important on what you put them on.

[00:08:57]Looking at the moon just uh with the binoculars in your hands, it will be a lot more shaky, a lot more blurry, and you will be shocked to see just how much detail you can get out of the moon if you stabilize those binoculars on some kind of tripod.

[00:09:11]Of course, it gets progressively better once you start using some real telescopes.

[00:09:16]This nice cheap little refractor, perfect for the moon. No issues there.

[00:09:21]The Maksutov SVBONY that I reviewed a few weeks ago, also that's like the best you can get for a balcony for the moon.

[00:09:30]And look, pairing it with some cheap IPCs, again as I showed you before, you can get all the ranges of magnification that you can get on the moon.

[00:09:40]So really highly recommend it.

[00:09:43]But of course, if you want to get really serious about the moon, then you need some serious aperture.

[00:09:50]That's another thing that many astronomers simply get wrong.

[00:09:54]They tell you a big Dobsonian is too bright for the moon.

[00:09:57]No, my friends.

[00:09:59]Your eyes are not well adapted. That's all there is to it.

[00:10:03]Still, if it's too bright, there is a simple fix. Look at this.

[00:10:10]Get a pair of polarized sunglasses. Very cheap, great. It will limit you a little bit in terms of eyepieces, but it will improve your [music] view quite a lot.

[00:10:21]Of course, if you want to keep it a bit more professional, all you have to do is buy a cheap variable polarizing filter.

[00:10:28]This way you can fine-tune the brightness of the moon to match exactly your eyes.

[00:10:35]Full disclosure, 95% of the time that I'm looking at the moon, even if I'm looking at it with this super bright 30 mm Sky-Watcher 2-in, I'm not using a filter.

[00:10:47]>> [laughter] >> I just like absorbing the maximum light I can get out of the moon completely unex- unfiltered by anything. And I enjoy it quite a lot, if I might add.

[00:10:59]Another huge mistake people make.

[00:11:02]Really, every time I see this, I am like, "Ah, don't do that, man. Don't do that, man."

[00:11:08]They will take out this small thing [music] and tell you observe the moon through this small hole because then the image will not be as bright and it will be nice.

[00:11:18]Big mistake. Big mistake.

[00:11:21]Because resolving power and resolution of the telescope is clearly only function of the aperture.

[00:11:29]You're effectively lowering the resolution of your telescope at least 10 times.

[00:11:34]And that's a real pity. Then what are you doing? Why are you even carrying this 30 kg monster?

[00:11:40]So don't do that. Don't ever do that.

[00:11:42]Even for the sun, this is too small.

[00:11:44]This too small hole. It's a lot better to get a bigger sun filter, buy other sun filter, and observe through that one.

[00:11:52]So, never use the hole.

[00:11:54]At least not this hole, I mean.

[00:11:57]So, of course, my favorite way to observe the moon is with my big 12-in Dobsonian. If I had a 20-in Dobsonian, I would use that one to observe it as [music] well. What I also love, and this might be a tip for you on how to choose some nice eyepieces, is observing the moon with eyepieces where the moon is almost filling the whole field of view of the eyepiece.

[00:12:21]This way, I get everything in one simple look.

[00:12:26]And that's why also field of view matters a lot.

[00:12:30]I can achieve that well with my 14-mm super sharp Angel Eyes, or I can get my Maxvision 11-mm but this time 82°, so again the view is zoomed out zoomed in a little bit, but the moon is filling out the view, or I have not done this yet, but I have this new 9-mm 100° eyepiece, and looking at Stellarium, it should fill the moon in the entire view with great magnification.

[00:13:04]I can't wait to have a look at the moon in this one in my 12-in Dobsonian.

[00:13:10]But make sure to use a coma corrector for maximum sharpness across the entire [music] field.

[00:13:16]To make things even better, the exit pupil will be around 1.7, so it should be super super sharp, super big, and quite quite pleasing.

[00:13:26]And of course, one of the main reasons for owning the zoom, I always say it's a lot of fun. This is the cheap SV191, the big one is in the basement.

[00:13:35]But, looking at this video, you can see that I made, if you take a serious zoom like the you can zoom in and out, play around with it. There is really nothing quite like it zooming in and out of the moon.

[00:13:49]And what I really like about the moon is shutting off tracking. Shut off tracking, it's literally like flying over the moon. Sometimes I really feel like I'm looking through the window of one of the Apollo modules.

[00:14:02]Highly, highly recommended. If you have a tracking telescope, shut down the tracking, get some nice magnification to the moon, and enjoy the view. And then of course, on nights of excellent seeing, you can ramp up the magnification to the max that your telescope and eyepiece allow.

[00:14:19]Last time I was really getting hints of the Rima Hadley, it was really, really quite amazing.

[00:14:26]In terms of filters, there is one more.

[00:14:29]It's called the moon and skyglow filter.

[00:14:32]Cost just five bucks. To be honest, I see absolutely no difference whatsoever when looking at the moon.

[00:14:38]Can see some difference when looking through the filter, but yeah, I just don't use it most of the time. What can I say?

[00:14:45]And my favorite way to really ramp up the magnification is my AnglEyez 7 mm and 4 mm. That's when you really get deep [music] inside each crater. Then maybe it's better to turn on the tracking because it's a really fast show.

[00:15:02]Yeah, highly recommended to get the maximum magnification of the moon on a very good night.

[00:15:14]Thank you for watching. Over and out.

[00:15:16]Click like, click subscribe, and talk to you next time. Astro field.