Contrary to the usual instinct, a full Moon is close to the worst possible time to actually look at it — the flat, shadowless light washes out the terrain entirely. This session is scheduled deliberately around first or last quarter, when the terminator (the line between lunar day and night) throws long shadows across crater rims and mountain ranges.
Guests are often surprised by how three-dimensional the Moon looks under the right lighting — a decent 8-inch telescope at high magnification along the terminator line shows more visible terrain detail than most people expect from an object we can already see with the naked eye every clear night.
We keep a simple sketching pad on hand; more guests than you’d expect want to try drawing a crater field once they’ve actually seen one properly.