76% waxing moon, Altair 183M

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turfpit
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76% waxing moon, Altair 183M

#1

Post by turfpit »

22nd April 2021 around 22:00, Intermittent thin cloud. See links to higher resolution Astrobin images.
Celestron C8, Celestron AVX mount, Altair 183M (camera has an IR cut filter sensor window), hands-off focusing with JMI Moto-Focus.
Capture area = 1920x1200, 8-bit MONO, SER, 60s @ 35fps, Exposure=1ms, gain=800/5000
Software: SharpCap 4, Autostakkert!3 (stack best 15% with drizzle 1.5), GIMP.

Clavius.jpg
Clavius.jpg (415.97 KiB) Viewed 830 times
https://www.astrobin.com/7j0qvt/?nc=user


Hadley_Rille.jpg
Hadley_Rille.jpg (184.83 KiB) Viewed 830 times
https://www.astrobin.com/h12pnl/?nc=user


Copernicus-Eratosthenes.jpg
Copernicus-Eratosthenes.jpg (201.33 KiB) Viewed 830 times
https://www.astrobin.com/ba39hn/?nc=user


Plato.jpg
Plato.jpg (228.11 KiB) Viewed 830 times
https://www.astrobin.com/aro1nr/?nc=user


Dave
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turfpit
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Re: 76% waxing moon, Altair 183M

#2

Post by turfpit »

Using Virtual Moon Atlas, I have found craters on the image which are only 2 miles in diameter.

Clavius-region-annotated.JPG
Clavius-region-annotated.JPG (135.67 KiB) Viewed 821 times

Dave
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Menno555
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Re: 76% waxing moon, Altair 183M

#3

Post by Menno555 »

Some great shots Dave!!
Clavius especially really pops. I presume your seeing was good giving the fact the "only" 35fps?

Menno
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turfpit
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Re: 76% waxing moon, Altair 183M

#4

Post by turfpit »

Thanks Menno. 35fps is the best I can get from the 183M and that is with the capture area reduced to 1920x1200. I think a lot of the detail comes from luck with how the disk is illuminated at the time of the shot.

Dave
timh
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Re: 76% waxing moon, Altair 183M

#5

Post by timh »

The are excellent photos Dave. Hadley Rille especially looks almost 3 D - but they are all good. You must have had focus to a tee as well as good lucky imaging. I guess that f = 2000 mm helps too.

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turfpit
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Re: 76% waxing moon, Altair 183M

#6

Post by turfpit »

Thanks Tim. With the C8 I have a JMI Motorised focuser which is on a lead. With the hands-off focusing I can get close to the laptop to study the image. I always
  • Highlight Over Exposed in the FX dropdown
  • Over expose slightly
  • Set Zoom to at least 125%
  • Focus by using a crater which has some features in the bottom
  • Set Zoom to Auto
  • Reduce exposure until Right Hand Side of a log histogram is around 60% saturation
The image on screen looks too dark but it correct for processing. Live (or die) by the histogram! Good focus may take a few minutes to achieve. A 1.5 hour lunar session can produce around 100Gb of data, so it is worth taking the time to get a good focus. If the atmosphere is unsteady then sometimes small craters can appear and disappear in the Live View.

over-exposed.JPG
over-exposed.JPG (47.1 KiB) Viewed 811 times

Capture.JPG
Capture.JPG (55.42 KiB) Viewed 811 times


Dave
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