Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Thursday, September 8th.  The sun will rise at 7:12.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 53 minutes, setting at 8:06.   The moon, half way from first quarter to full, will set at 4:28 tomorrow morning.

The moon tonight is very bright, so looking at it with a telescope can be almost painful.  There are moon filters sold at telescope stores for standard sized eyepieces that will alleviate that problem.  Remember it’s daytime on the moon and the sunlight is as strong on the moon as it is on the earth.  Concentrate the telescope on the left edge of the moon, the sunrise line where the shadows are.  The bright crater Aristarchus is just coming into sunlight now on the upper left.  It’s the brightest spot on the moon when the moon is full.  The Crater Gassendi to the lower left is a ringed plain with low walls and a flat floor that has a rille or crack in it.  Another distinctive crater is Schiller lower to the south and distinctively elongated.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The moon with craters Aristarchus, Gassendi and Schiller. Image from Virtual Moon Atlas.

Closeup of the crater Gassendi

The crater Gassendi from Apollo 16 - NASA