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Yep, besides planets while the full moon is up, I love viewing the full moon itself. Anyway, as someone commented earlier, it often isn't quite full even when it appears that it is. Here's a recent example, to the naked eye it looked full, but you can see that it isn't. It looked amazing at the eyepiece.

Full version here:

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Beautiful image, and one that illustrates my point perfectly. I spent an entire lunation this past spring going out and observing the Moon every day of the cycle. I expected the day either side of Full to be among my shorter sessions, but instead they were among the longest. There's a lot to be seen, as this image shows. It can be a challenge to identify features peeking up at you over the limb. It's enormously gratifying when you succeed.

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Beautiful image, and one that illustrates my point perfectly. I spent an entire lunation this past spring going out and observing the Moon every day of the cycle. I expected the day either side of Full to be among my shorter sessions, but instead they were among the longest. There's a lot to be seen, as this image shows. It can be a challenge to identify features peeking up at you over the limb. It's enormously gratifying when you succeed.

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Thanks, and yeah absolutely, there's really a LOT to be seen at every phase of the moon, including full. It's funny. When I first got a scope, it was like, oh cool, look at the moon! Then, it becomes a bit of, oh, look at that source of light pollution. But finally, with a more experienced eye, well, it's just incredible. How can you not be into looking at mountains on a body in space? As clear and distinct as mountains you see on earth as you fly in an airplane, but in space?! Or looking deeply into craters? It's just unbelievable.

(Oo by the way, I neglected to put in the link to the full version of the pic above, I just added it)

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I do not view with a full moon, and I do not suggest you do either. While yes, as people have ponted out, you can still see the planets and bright deep sky objects, you are missing out on the good targets, that require a new moon to see.

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I do not view with a full moon, and I do not suggest you do either. While yes, as people have ponted out, you can still see the planets and bright deep sky objects, you are missing out on the good targets, that require a new moon to see.

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One of my favorite quotes:
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." John Wooden.

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When you add the Moon to planets, double stars, and DSOs faint and otherwise, there will always be something to observe on a clear night, whether you are under dark skies or dealing with an urban glow.

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I do not view with a full moon, and I do not suggest you do either. While yes, as people have ponted out, you can still see the planets and bright deep sky objects, you are missing out on the good targets, that require a new moon to see.

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One of my favorite quotes:

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." John Wooden.

Yes, there are targets I cannot see when the moon is full or nearly full (as it will be tonight) but there is still plenty to see and enjoy. If limited my observing to those nights when everything was just right to see the faintest possible objects, I would miss out on a lot.

Tonight for example, the moon is nearly full, about 90% illuminated and rises only 25 minutes after astronomical twilight, certainly not an ideal night for hunting down the faintest fuzzy's.

But it will be clear, the skies transparent and the seeing quite good later in the evening. Check out the Clear Sky Clock, if all goes as planned, I am certainly going to have some fun tonight.

Jon

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re astronomical twilight, about how long after sunset is that? I am thinking as another as implied about 90 minutes?
then there is atronomical dusk. is that substantially more dark than twilight?

and what should I do to avoid "twilight zone" while observing alone?

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I do not view with a full moon, and I do not suggest you do either. While yes, as people have ponted out, you can still see the planets and bright deep sky objects, you are missing out on the good targets, that require a new moon to see.

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So the Moon is not a good target?

Hmmmm.


I amused myself in the late night heat playing around with a couple small scopes and spent an hour or so finding just which of my eyepieces worked best with a 80mm tabletop Galileo Dob.Said Dob actually has very smooth movement and is fine on a patio table.It also is very lightweight and looks impressive sitting in the living room which is its usual place while i use more advanced scopes.

160x was the limit,beyond that the Moon's image became too faint and grainy.Amazingly that is the oft quoted "2 times the objective in mm" rule.I've gone higher power with a bigger scope.

I saw dramatic contrasts at the limbs,numerous areas of darker patches,and picked out more detail on crater floors that appeared smooth in a 25mm but showed many neat little? craters using 2.5mm.Probably the best high power combo was Celestron 17mm plossl and Meade 5x telenegative.A 12mm EP and 5x was too faint to view.12.5mm and 5x was acceptable but a little washed out..

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I'm not sayit the moon is not a good target. My answer was more geared toward the topic starter, as a 16 inch dob is not really designed for mooon observing, and the moon would appear much too bright without a moon filter.

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re astronomical twilight, about how long after sunset is that? I am thinking as another as implied about 90 minutes?

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then there is atronomical dusk. is that substantially more dark than twilight?

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seriously Tony you enjoy naked eye observing more than w telescope?

anyways I looked at your chart and from that I guess astronomical twilight occurs about 1 hour 10 min after sunset for where I am (San Diego).

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M42 doesnt care about the moon..

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