Swoop1

Missed the Stars as the rim shadow had receeded accross the floor too much by the time I got out. Still had and enjoyabe session as reported elsewhere, referncing the first image in this post by Stu.

Another grab and go type session tonight as I enjoyed last night so much. 2100UT- 2145UT Celestron C6 SCT on AZ4 from my back garden in South Bucks. Basic 25mm and 10mm, BST 8mm and Meade 40mm plossl EP's. Scope deployed at around 2000UT for cooling. Transparency fair to good and seeing good with occasional thermal shimmering. I intended to take advantage of the heads up given by @paulastro about the Stars Of Aristillus but, I was a little too late to catch the peaks illuminated alone before the rim shadow passed the mountain bases. I was however able to resolve the mountains through the 25mm. Switching to the 10mm and then 8mm I confirmed that resolution fell off quite sharply and that the 25mm is the sweet spot. I tried the 40mm and the clarity was superb but the 25mm just took it on magnification without loss of detail. I spent quite a bit of time casting around the area enjoying the views of the Triple A's and the surrounding terrain before two very high albedo bright spots really caught my eye. In a flight of fancy, the spots resembled the burning horns of some mystical beast emerguing through the surface of Mare Imbrium. On examination of the spots and consulting my copy of the Ronald Stoyan Duplex Moon Atlas, I saw that one was in a direct line North West starting at Mons Piton through Piazzi Smyth and I think I identified it as Mons Pico. The other 'horn' I couldn't identify. They are clearly visible in the top image by @Stu in his reply to the paulastro heads up- Another very enjoyable session. I also had a cast about for potential noctilucent cloud. No luck but a couple of noctilucent con trails were visible!

I haven't done much in the way of plain observing for a few weeks (not done much of anything really!) so decided to break out the C6 SCT and AZ4 for a short session tonight. I started and around 20:20UT and spent half an hour at the EP's before terminating as work beckons tomorrow morning. I decided to concentrate on the Mare Serinitatis area. My attention was properly grabbed by Posidonius which looked surreal tonight- almost like a fake rubber crater dropped onto the surface of the moon. The albedo of the crater floor looked markedly different to the mare and highlands on which it sits. The fractured nature of the floor of the crater was discernible. I had started with the stock Celestron 25mm EP that came witht he scope and the view was nice and sharp. I was able to resolve down to Posidonius P and possibly to M so I swapped out to a 10mm that I got with my Skywatcher Newtonian. The increase in magnification didn't really come with any increase in resolving power so I then thought I would try an 8mm BST Starguider in case it was optics quality but there was no marked improvement. I decided to go back to the 25mm when I saw what looked like an out of focus ISS slowly creeping up the FOV- must have been a floater. The 25mm is definitely the prime EP for visual on this scope with my eyes. A thoroughly enjoyable 30 minutes or so with fair transparency and generally good seeing.

I used my Celestron C6 SCT at an outreach event and last night discovered that some little darling has left a greasy paw print on the corrector plate. Now, if this was my camera lens, I would have at it with some cleaning fluid and lens tissues BUT, i don't want to get banned from SGL for telescope maltreatment so, what advice for removing paw prints from correctors please. Thanks, Matt.

@shaztronomer I would be pleased if that was my image. The stars look reasonably sharp and there is definite detail in there.

I feel great sympathy for your back....

A torch shining on the primary mirror of your reflector?

Out of focus sun through rain shower?

The age old quandry- how many scopes/ eyepieces/cameras does an astronomer need? Two answers- a) N+1 where N is the number of scopes/ eyepieces/cameras owned by the astronomer b) S-1 where S is the number of scopes/ eyepieces/cameras that would cause the astronomers Significant Other to kick them out of the house. I could not possibly advise as to which is your correct answer....

So, mr Spock- clear evidence that you have failed to fill out a risk assesment for the hazardous activity you were undertaking. Had you done so, you would have identified the risk of injury from striking your head on the counterweight bar, assesed the liklihood of this happening and put control measures in place. Off to Screwfix (other vendors are available) for a bump cap you now must go. 😉 Hope you recover soon!

Love the detail!

You could set yourself up as an observatory building business with your quality builds Miguel! Very nice obsy👍

Malc, sad that this part of your journey ends as it does but, as your forward thinking suggests- this cloud may well have a silver lining. Good luck!

Mike, I had feared that you had come to tell us that it had been destroyed what with the weather related disasters on your side of the pond in recent days. Stay safe!

Very nice images Neil. Detail is popping out very clearly. The rille and cataena in the first image followed by the tiny (to the eye) craterlets on the mare surfaces in subsequent frames is something for others to aim for.

@jamiejet- You could try an Omegon Minitrack clockwork tracking mount on top of a standard photography tripod- https://www.omegon.eu/?q=minitrack I have an a6300 which I occasionally use for planetary and wide field imaging and my Minitrack does an OK job.

Thanks for the lesson Ags! Another applicant for inclusion as a Ceresophile.

Hello everyone, my name is Matt and I'm a Lunatic. Great find Marvin!

Gorgeous little lass Mike! Are they Fruit Loops on the tray in image one? No. 2 Son loved Fruit Loops as a sprog during holidays to The States.

Recessing will give you a tad more room and sometimes a tad makes all the difference.

Nice set of images Roy. I like the first one because it is reminicent of the sort of views seen in Apollo footage during TEI burns etc- the Command Module skimming a bare few miles above the surface as it makes its way home. The last one I like because the Mare Imbrium/ Montes Alps region is one of my favourites. The rest are enjoyable as well for various reasons. I like the way some of the small crater chains look like footprints of birds scurrying accross wetland mud.

Thanks @Pondus

Thanks @Moonshed

C6 SCT/ HEQ5PRO/ ASI290MC. Best 40% of 2000 frames, stacked in Autostakkert! and levels tweaked in GIMP.

As someone who struggles with Deep Sky imaging, in my opinion, there ain't nothing wrong with that image Nick. Yes the trapezium is blown out but you have teased some pleasant detail from the surrounding nebula. With data you capture later using shorter exposures to capture trapezium detail, layering with the nebula detail from this will look really good.