Plato/Apennines 2-panel mosaic, 80% waxing, UV/IR-cut/L + Wratten #25 red filters

[turfpit]

Captured 14th November 2021, around 20:20. Elevation 30°.
Celestron AVX mount, Celestron C8 SCT, 0.63x reducer, Skyris 618m CCD camera, UV/IR-cut /L + Wratten #25 red filters to mitigate brightness.
2 panels, each 7200 frames @120fps (60s). SER MONO8 640x480, gain 300 (out of 1000), exp=3ms. Histogram saturation 60%.
SC 4, Autostakkert!3 best 30% stacked with drizzle 1.5, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, Registax (wavelets 2, 1, 3 and brightness, contrast, gamma).

Plato_Apennines.PNG (451.25 KiB) Viewed 830 times

This was part of a 1 hour capture session which resulted in 25 SER videos totalling 50Gb. Here is a typical capture in progress from the session:

typical-capture.JPG (63 KiB) Viewed 830 times

Filters tried were IR685, UV/IR-cut /L, Wratten #25 red including combinations. With the moon crossing the meridian, the UV/IR & #25 red seemed the best combination for handling the brightness and giving good contrast.

Dave

[oopfan]

Dave,

It is your best Hadley Rille yet!

Brian

[turfpit]

Thanks Brian.

Dave

[Buckrogers]

That looks awesome!

[turfpit]

Thanks. 2 years of struggle to get to producing that standard of image consistently.

Dave

[timh]

You picked a perfect few moments on the terminator with that one and it appears very sharp. Thanks for providing the details. I have tried but have yet to get an image worth posting of lunar detail. Another go tonight possibly.
Tim

[turfpit]

Tim

Moon is nearly 100% tonight so difficult to pick out features. What I did was use Virtual Moon Atlas and the Ephemeris tab (top right). I know from experience that when Copernicus is visible, near the terminator and not burnt out then Mare Imbrium will be illuminated so as to make a good capture.

VMA-Copernicus.JPG (33.35 KiB) Viewed 719 times

You will still need to work out which filters (or combination of filters) are effective at reducing the brightness.

There will be some good illumination with shadows towards the end of the week but it means early morning work.

Dave