Moon in Two Lights: A First Quarter Day-Night Portrait

Astrophotographer Zachary Cooper captured the first-quarter Moon using a small refractor and a dedicated camera, taking many ultra-short exposures for the sunlit side and longer exposures to reveal earthshine, then merging the frames into a single image that shows dramatic daylight shadows at the terminator and the faint glow on the dark side—an image that mirrors how Artemis II views the Moon and reveals the Moon’s dual-night/day character.