Moonset distortion at La Silla

The La Silla Observatory, ESO’s first observatory, was inaugurated on March 25, 1969, four months before Apollo 11’s Moon Landing. It were two major events and if the Moon was admired by many, soon moved to everyone’s imagination. This same Moon is still on the focus of many photographers that try to get the best picture of it all the time. In this set of pictures of Moonset at La Silla we can see the changes in the shape of an Old Moon as it goes towards the horizon, just before midnight. The shape of the Moon was optically distorted as its light passed through layers of different air densities, caused by different pressures, temperatures and humidities as it disappeared below the horizon of the Pacific Ocean.