201 S Estes Dr, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA — NASA invites people to spend some time looking at Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor during International Observe the Moon Night. The annual event brings together sky-watchers of all experience levels to appreciate the Moon while learning more about lunar science and exploration.
The program began in 2010 and is held each year around the first-quarter moon, a phase that offers some of the best opportunities to see detail on the lunar surface.
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This year’s event comes just after the Moon reached first quarter at 4:43 p.m. Friday. In Raleigh, the Moon will rise at about 3:20 p.m. Saturday with about 61% of the surface illuminated, giving much of the evening to observe it.
You don’t need special equipment to enjoy the view, but binoculars or a small telescope can reveal craters, mountains and other features brought into sharper relief by the shadows cast across the lunar surface. That contrast is one reason astronomers often prefer viewing the Moon when it isn’t full. During a full moon, sunlight illuminates the surface more directly, washing out many of the shadows that help define the lunar landscape.
Mostly cloudy skies are forecast for Saturday, but clouds are expected to begin clearing around sunset and continue to thin through midnight, potentially providing a window for viewing.
For Triangle residents who would like to see the Moon through a telescope, the Chapel Hill Astronomical and Observational Society, or CHAOS, will host a free public observing event from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday at University Place, 201 S. Estes Drive. Members will have telescopes set up in the common area and will help visitors get a closer look at the Moon and Saturn.
CHAOS will also have an observing session Saturday night at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham from 8:30 to 10 p.m. The session is part of the group’s public skywatching program and offers another opportunity for Triangle residents to observe with the help of experienced astronomers.
Look for the newest crater
While you are there, ask a CHAOS member to show you one of the Moon's newest craters. No not the one created by a discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage on August 5. Even the sizable telescopes brought by those amateur astronomers will have difficulty resolving a crater only 60 feet wide.
NASA recently identified the largest newly formed crater ever found in the solar system, in images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The crater formed sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when an asteroid or comet roughly the size of a six-story building slammed into the Moon’s surface, carving a crater about 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep. Scientists estimate impacts of this size happen on the Moon only about once a century or longer, and the discovery was possible because NASA had images of the same area taken before and after the impact.
For those staying home, NASA offers resources for identifying features on the lunar surface, along with suggestions for observing with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. You can photograph the Moon, sketch what you see, keep a lunar journal or simply watch as it moves across the sky. The first-quarter Moon will remain a prominent evening target over the next several days as it grows toward full.
While you are out, look toward the western sky around sunset, where Venus will shine brightly throughout the weekend.
