Gigamoon

Born under the orbit of the world's first satellite, the Soviet's Sputnik in 1957,  I've long been fascinated by space, the stars, and Earth's moon. I grew up mesmerized by NASA's Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space missions, and today follow the mind-boggling imagery being collected by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Last week I found the high-res Gigamoon composition developed by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy and am awestruck once again. Zoom in and have some fun.

McCarthy describes Gigamoon as follows:

"The culmination of five years of experience with detailed moon photography, 'Gigamoon' is the most detailed image of the moon I've ever created. Using two dedicated telescopes, one for extreme detail and one for color and composition, I captured over 280,000 photos of the waxing gibbous moon to create this composite panorama of Earth's nearest neighbor. Viewing in full resolution gives you an up close look at the unique battered history of the moon. Zoom in and see the irregular shapes of sinuous lava tubes, the catastrophic scars from impact craters, monstrous canyons and towering mountains."