150,000 Pictures of the Moon Show Its Different Colors

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Moon Pictures

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy went viral a few weeks ago for creating a 51MP picture of the moon with 50,000 shots.

He just realized the same type of photo, but with 150,000 shots that, when put together, show the hidden colors on the moon's surface.

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The splashes of color each show the different minerals present on the surface.

"The color was already in that picture, hidden behind the glare of the moon's albedo, and represents the mineral content of our moon," McCarthy said.

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"While my previous images showed you the detail you could see if your eyes were sharper, this one shows you what the moon could look like if our eyes and brain were much more sensitive to color."

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McCarthy, who is also known for the composite photo of our entire solar system which he shot from his backyard, explained that the blue in the photo denotes a high titanium content, while orange huges represent low titanium content.

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While this colored photo of the moon was not his first priority, he had enough shots from the 81MP composite picture of the moon to further explore the surface.

"Because I took so many shots to average out the blurring caused by atmospheric turbulence, as well as to eliminate noise captured by the camera sensor, the accuracy of the subtle coloration of the moon was incredibly high," he said.

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I made an 8k wallpaper out of my four most popular moon shots from the last lunar cycle. I linked out to the high res versions in my bio. Each image is available as a matching print, as well. . . . . . #skywatcher #skywatchertelescope #oriontelescopes #astrophotography #astronomy #nightphotography #space #sonyalpha #sonyalpha7ii #sonyimages #nightphotography #sacramentophotographer #amateurastronomy #amateurastrophotography #amateurastronomer #spacenerd #starrynight #nightshooters #universe #telescope #astrophotographer #stargazers #lunar #moon #earthshine #supermoon #bloodmoon #mineralmoon

A post shared by Andrew McCarthy (@cosmic_background) on Mar 3, 2019 at 8:07am PST

All of these images were shot with the Orion XT10 telescope, a Skywatcher EQ6-R mount, one astronomy camera, and the Sony a7 II full-frame mirrorless camera.

McCarthy, who promotes AutoStakkert! almost nonstop because he uses it for nearly all of his composite images, also adjusted the saturation and contrast on the image to really make the colors pop.

You can purchase all of his prints here.

^{All photos by Andrew McCarthy, used with permission.}