astrolulu

Thanks for all comments! Interestingly, the same camera captures the planets in their proper, distinct color, while the Moon's raw images appear almost monochrome - black and white. This is always a challenge, because it opens the way to some arbitrariness in the use of color. But at the same time it is an attraction - because the final effect is never obvious 🙂

Lunar Panorama. March 1st.

Perfect!

Nice color!

One more approach to the same session, a slightly wider frame and slightly different color treatment.

And another panorama from the penultimate day of 2022.

Hi, have you notice the loss of focus towards the lower right corner of the frame? Such an effect should not take place in case of SCT, so maybe it's worth checking the collimation? I think there is a chance to get a much higher precision of details from your 11 inches - it seems that there is some problem with the collimation or alignment of the camera here.

Panorama performed by Celestron C8-N and the newly purchased ASI 183 MC camera. Such a gigantic sensor, however, is a challenge in the case of a telescope with a poorly corrected field - like my newt. Even with a 2x Barlow lens, the curvature of the field can be felt, manifesting itself when trying to arrange a mosaic of several photos. It turns out that their geometry - especially in the outer areas of the frame - differs slightly, and precise fitting of large panels becomes impossible. But wait! Why fit panels, if the sensor gives an impressive field of view?! Well - this camera is demanding ... I had to spend a moment to collimate my C8-N on the star, because the use of the collimator is complete fiction. After removing it and inserting a heavy Barlow with a camera, the entire collimation goes to hell. In order to fight the loss of sharpness on the edges of this large sensor, I have to watch the collimation quite precisely, i.e. with such equipment and in such a position in which the observation will be carried out. So ASI 183 is not "maintenance-free" equipment and a camera for a beginner. The predecessor - ASI 178 MC - I could confidently recommend to anyone, even a novice astrophotographer. Here we have equipment for those who want to get a little extra - and are willing to put in a little more care and effort.

Do you know the term photobomb? This is how photos are defined when someone unexpectedly appeares in the frame, against the intention of the author. Recently, a colleague at CN pointed out that this is how Rupes Recta behaves in my photos. Well, actually - there is something there... Another photo made by Meadzio:

Another May memory of Meadzio, plus Central Bay in the foreground...

The larger the fragment of the Moon's surface, the greater the scale of differences in the brightness of objects on the surface - and the more difficult it is to choose the brightness and contrast so as not to burn out the brightest ones, while maintaining the appropriate brightness and visibility of darker areas. You did it great 🙂

Beautiful color and very balanced brightness/contrast. Great picture.

Meanwhile... what can you do in cloudy and snowy weather we have in Poland in recent days, if not to reach for old, unprocessed materials and finally check what treasures are hidden there. I reached out too. I found my old photos from May, taken with my favorite LX200 ACF, which I affectionately called "Meadzio", which is the Polish diminutive for "Meade". Meadzio drew very delicately, sensitively, but precisely - nothing that could be considered "soft" drawing. This model is not a classic SCT by the way, it's more of a hybrid of SCT and RC. I had to sell it to start fundraising for a larger diameter instrument, but I have fond memories of it - see why...

Mandy, thank you very much for this interesting comparison! I think we all have a feeling that NASA is extremely sparing in sharing with us the images related to this mission, so I'm sure it's not their last word when it comes to image quality 🙂

The northern regions of Mare Imbrium, Mare Frigoris and the highlands dividing them, with Plato crater and Vallis Alpes to the east and Sinus Iridum to the west. Extremely spectacular areas - and thus photographed in thousands of ways. Also by me 🙂 But I can't resist not to approach this topic again at every opportunity. Bringing out the blue tones of the ejecta around Bliss Crater and the accompanying craters Plato B, Y and M, or bringing out the luminous silverness of the lands surrounding Sinus Iridum, is a source of constant joy for me...

It is a very difficult object for direct, visual observation - not only because of its small size, but also because of the small difference in brightness relative to the background. In turn, in the case of photos such as mine, the scale is probably simply too small for the color to have a chance to be recorded by the camera sensor.. As for the map, the background I used comes from images taken with the LRO orbiter. Thanks to this, it was possible to obtain almost the same lighting of all details and this is crucial in such a situation. If you have photos taken in different phases from Earth, you can rather use them to create an multi-page atlas allowing you to find objects in subsequent phases - but such photos are not suitable for direct use as a base for a single map. Many years ago I bought such an atlas, but to be honest I hardly used it. It's a nice idea in theory, but it doesn't work very well in practice. A single, simple map, without the need to select options, operate, set anything. Everything visible at once - that was my idea.

Hello Mark, you can see INA as a pale bright spot in the center of a yellow circle.

It must be said with appreciation that everyone did a really good job posing for this photo. Everyone brought out as much color as they could. And the blue Aristillus crater made the most effort. Only INA - a mysterious area distinguished by a blue tint, because of which it is sometimes called "Blue Lake", does not want to be blue... As usual.

Thank you very much. It's nice to know that someone is still looking at pictures of the Moon while there are so many great photos of DS objects on the forum 🙂

Copernicus as the King of Brightness and Manilius, Agrippa and Godin as the Princes of Darkness...

Mare Nubium with Rupes Recta fault to the east and Bullialdus crater to the west. The Ptolemaeus-Alphonsus-Arzachel series of craters is slowly entering the shadow zone, as are giant Deslandres and its Cassini Bright Spot:

Hi, if you expect honest criticism then let me tell you what comes to my mind first. Well, I would definitely use Photoshop filters more sparingly. It is worth using them only to such an extent as to improve the photo while maintaining its natural character. It is not good when we see from a distance that the image has been processed by filters, because then they become the subject of the photo, more important than the object itself.

The weather is awful, but there is a reliable friend - Photoshop! It's fair to say that due to Adobe's current policy of updating its products (more often than I use them...), Photoshop likes to crash sometimes. However, I can still count on it more than good weather, and that's what happened now. I returned to the observation session of September 17 due to persistent cloud cover. Of course it is true that Tycho reigns here. But for me the most important actor is Clavius. It's Clavius I always look at, it's Clavius where I look for small details that allow me to assess the quality of a photo...

The color that we see in the photos straight from the camera is almost imperceptible - the photos look like black and white pictures. This is good and bad at the same time. Bad - because you don't know which direction to go when working on color. Good - because even quite risky decisions can be justified in such a situation 🙂

Hello Paul. Nice try, you got a very good effect for a handheld photo using a tablet. It is worth remembering, however, that this technique of taking pictures is not particularly effective and you cannot count on much more here. If you decided to buy even the cheapest dedicated astro camera, you would get much, much more out of your 90mm. If you feel that this type of photography can give you satisfaction, it would definitely be a justified investment 🙂