APOD: 2022 February 28 - Direct Projection: The Moon in My Hands

Good morning, Rallypoint, and welcome to the February 28th Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "Direct Projection: The Moon in My Hands." The Observatory of Saint-Veran (French: Observatoire de Saint-Véran) is located on the Pic de Château Renard in the municipality of Saint-Véran in the department of Hautes-Alpes in the French Alps. At 2,930 meters, it is one of the highest observatories in Europe. The observatory was built in 1974 as a branch of the Paris Observatory. In 1990 amateur astronomers were granted use of its 62 cm Cassegrain telescope.

What is a Cassegrain telescope? From Wikipedia: "The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas, the main characteristic being that the optical path folds back onto itself, relative to the optical system's primary mirror entrance aperture. This design puts the focal point at a convenient location behind the primary mirror and the convex secondary adds a telephoto effect creating a much longer focal length in a mechanically short system."

And that's how you get The Moon in My Hands.