A New Crater on the Moon!
September 17, 2026 | Stargazing | Top
NASA has recently identified a significant new crater on the Moon, named McGetchin Crater. It is about 728 feet (222 meters) wide or a little wider then two football fields and 141 feet (43 meters) deep, equivalent to three school buses stacked end-to-end. The crater was formed between April 11 and May 22, 2024, escaping real-time detection from Earth and was not noticed in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photos until August 2025. It took another year to collect additional photos and data to confirm the new crater. The discovery was announced by NASA in mid-September 2026.
The crater itself is too small to resolve from Earth using typical amateur telescopes but the ejecta field formed by the impact is several times larger than the crater itself and very bright. It is possible to identify the location of McGetchin Crater by finding the associated ejecta field using this McGetchin Crater Finder Chart. The ejecta field appears as a small white dot in the eyepiece. Using high power with a Wratten 58 (green) filter and/or a neutral density filter while the Sun is high in the lunar sky over the Mare Crisium region can help the bright ejecta field stand out against the darker mare material.
I was able to detect the ejecta field in my 10" f/5 dobsonian telescope using a Wratten 58 filter at both 244x and 181x while viewing a 9-day old Moon under average to above average seeing conditions during International Observe the Moon Night 2026.
We acknowledge the use of imagery from Lunar QuickMap (https://lunar.quickmap.io), a collaboration between NASA, Intuitive Machines & Applied Coherent Technology Corp, in the creation of the McGetchin Crater Finder Chart.
Beginner Resources
June 1, 2026 | Stargazing | Top
A collection of PDF documents for people interested in getting started in stargazing. Included are documents on getting started in amateur astronomy, some good smartphone apps to use while stargazing, selecting a pair of binoculars for stargazing, selecting your first telescope, some of the best places to stargaze in the state of Texas, a beginner's map to the Moon and a beginner's star atlas. Download
ZIP Size: 12,186,965 bytes. SHA512: fae50a409bd29c327b1ec6bd177e018945a1a3c96ecd5af05a9b4cb678e5fe3ac02374679d2b0457ff3915628f80c402e466e6b94c5373c498bf61b36f76c37e
Intermediate Resources
June 1, 2026 | Stargazing | Top
A collection of PDF documents for intermediate level stargazers. Included are documents on how to find objects by star-hopping, using filters to observe the Moon and planets, a list of the Messier objects, a list of 100 things to see on the Moon, a list of free, downloadable and printable star maps, and a detailed map of the Moon. Download
ZIP Size: 52,270,055 bytes. SHA512: 7b7b0eb3c5479606a0fa406af4d444fbe0b16b6be7049ca0ed972032f3846682e252385c260078e33c2ae2f2498e3f80a0d13f406ea4c50d05ed4caf6bbe843b
How to verify SHA-512 checksums on various operating systems.
Advanced Resources
June 1, 2026 | Stargazing | Top
An advanced star atlas and supplemental files for the amateur astronomer. The Deep Sky Hunter's Star Atlas features stars down to magnitude 10.2 with deep sky objects down to magnitude 14. The supplemental files include the Deep Sky Hunter's Checklist, a list of 7000 deep sky objects and the Deep Sky Hunter's Illustrated Guide, a collection of about 700 images of deep sky objects.
Deep Sky Hunter's Star Atlas
Additional Downloads and Supplements
Clear Sky Charts
Current | Weather Forecasting | Top
Solar Disk and Sunspots
Current | Shallow Sky | Top
Aurora Forecast for North America
Current | Shallow Sky | Top
