Photographer “goes to Moon” for this photo of Mars… without leaving his backyard

It’s not common anymore that I come across photos on Instagram, especially those that stop me in my tracks. But when it happens – oh boy do I get amazed! One of the people who always blows my mind with his images is Andrew McCarthy, and it happened the other day with his latest image of Mars and the Moon.

The celestial objects were perfectly lined for a shot that looks like it was taken from the Moon. Of course, we can’t go there (yet), and Andrew didn’t even leave his backyard for this image. He told DIYP a bit more about how he took it and shared the magnificent photos with our readers so we can all admire it together.

I was convinced Andrew visited an observatory to take this photo. I mean, just look at Mars and how well you can see its details. Not to mention the details and colors of the lunar surface! However, Andrew tells us that he took the photo from his backyard, with his own telescope, just like many other images we featured earlier.

Since this is the case, I was wondering about the gear he used. He captured the photo using a 14″ telescope at 8250mm. Since the field of view was very small, the image is actually a mosaic. It’s also a stack of a sequence of images, which is necessary to improve clarity and reduce noise, as Andrew tells me.

I remember observing Mars and the Moon a few nights ago with the naked eye. They were close together, but in a different position than the one in Andrew’s shot. Plus, Andrew and I live on different continents. So I was wondering if he had to stay up and wait for the perfect moment, or if conjunction happened at more “normal” hours in the US. He tells me that his shot was captured at 8:30pm MST, over a period of about 10 seconds.

“What an incredible event, worth every bit of stress and effort to make sure I got a good shot,” Andrew wrote on Instagram when he shared the image. And I agree – I think it was more than worth it! You can buy it as a print on Andrew’s website, and make sure to follow his work on Instagram if you want to occasionally be stopped in your tracks while scrolling through your feed.