Zoom into the moon

jgs001

jgs001

Brian Cox
Messages
12,646
Name
John
Edit My Images
Yes
After capturing my pair of shots for my panoramic of the moon, I used my SPC900 webcam to get in much closer on the region around the crater Langrenus (about 80miles across), in the closer shot there are 3 craters to the left that sort of make an arrow pointing to it. The much higher power possible thanks to the 8.5x crop factor of the tiny sensor means you can get in much closer, but... You are more affected by seeing (atmospherics) which is where the 10 fps of the SPC900 comes into it's own. I captured an AVI and stacked all the frames into a single image, eliminating as much as possible of the wobbly effects of the seeing.

A wide view - due to some oddity of the stacking process (I think field movement and clouds), the left hand edge has been cropped
langrenuswide.jpg


And in closer (using a 2x barlow (astro magnifier))
langrenusmono.jpg


and colourised a little
langrenuscolour.jpg


Thanks for looking, the images are full size, the camera is 640x480 pixels
 
I am in no way qualified or experienced enough to comment on the technical aspects of these photos but - WOW! They are awesome!!!
 
Awesome as ever John!

How high is that 'mountain' in the centre of the crater?
 
Great shots :) I have just started to look into Astrophotography after inheriting a scope from my late father. I bought the T-piece and necessary adapters to fit my 40D on and try some prime focus photography only to find the focusser won't retract far enough to achieve focus DOH!

P.S. Are you going to try and image Lulin later this month ?
 
Last edited:
Thank you.

John, according to VMA (Virtual Moon Atlas) it's a double peak 1 Km high, the crater walls are 2.6Km high.

Andy, are you using a Reflector, if so, I've heard this can be quite common, PM me if you're interested and I'll pass on a couple of Astro forums that have knowledgeable people that can probably help ? If I get the skies for it, I plan to have a go at Lulin, although I couldn't find Kushida last night. Ok, my power supply for the mount died on me and curtailed my activities...
 
jgs001 said:
Andy, are you using a Reflector, if so, I've heard this can be quite common, PM me if you're interested and I'll pass on a couple of Astro forums that have knowledgeable people that can probably help ?
Click to expand...

Yes it's an Orion Europa, the optics seem find but I'm not sure about the trpiod and mount everytime you go to focus the damn thing wobbles lol Any help with decent forums etc would be great thx, will PM you.
 
If it wobbles, and takes too long to come back to a static view, then the mount/tripod is probably not sturdy enough, and this is going to cause issues with longer exposure photography, not impossible, just harder.
 
You excell at moon shots John.

Always look forward to these.
 
Cheers Mick, I still struggle getting the processing right on them, I need more practise, oh, and a Mak and DMK would help too ;)
 
i was trying to take some last night but i just couldnt do it. it was just coming up with a ball of light. just a white light. no detail

played around with the settings and it was coming out too dark. gave up in the end :bonk:
 
The moon is tricky to get right... Ignore the light meter, or use spot metering.
 
Cheers Pete I'm trying to upload the 600 frame AVI that I processed into the second image, it clearly shows the effects of seeing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top