The moon as you rarely see it: How a photographer captured night and day on the first quarter moon

The first quarter moon shines over the city of Yorba Linda, California in March 2026. (Image credit: Zachary Cooper) Astrophotographer Zachary Cooper created this magnificent view of March's first quarter moon, using clever editing to reveal dramatic detail and shadows on the sunlit side, while also capturing the ethereal glow of "earthshine" on its shadowed half. Here's how he did it. Cooper set out to photograph the moon using an 80 millimeter (3.14 inch) refractor telescope and ZWO astronomy camera as it glowed half-lit in the skies above the city of Yorba Linda, California, on March 25. Dark lunar seas, bright young craters and dramatic shadows dominate the moon's ancient surface near the line where night and day collide, known as the terminator — or, as Cooper calls it, the "sunset strip". However, this is no ordinary picture of the waxing moon. It's a clever composite, created by capturing and merging multiple photos with different settings to tease out detail on both the sunlit and shadowed sides of the lunar disk. "Many people are surprised to learn that the night side of the Moon, when facing Earth , isn't actually completely dark. …