A Sliver of Sunshine

I'm allways thrilled to get even a marginally decent astronomical image with the zoon lense on a regular camera. This one was processed slightly by brightening the part of the moon in shadow to bring out the detail a bit and then sharpened. It was taken with an AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 1:3.5 - 5.6 DX lense zoomed to it's max of 200mm.

Sigh. If only I'd loaned Bill Gates the $1,000 he asked for back in 1982. Had I done so I might now be able to make a downpayment on this bad-boy -> Sigma 500mm f/4.5 EX HSM telephoto lense. The $4,100 US street price for the lens is a bit out of my league though. Far enough out of my league in fact to be just past the orbit of Pluto. I can dream though :)