Lunar Images 15th Feb 2013

[Paxo]

A few images taken on Friday 15th February. Imaged through a 12" Meade LX200R at native f10 with a DMK 21AU04.AS at 60 fps. A Planet IR Pro 807nm filter was used to reduce the atmospheric turbulence. Captured with IC Capture, stacked and processed through AVIStack 2.

First image is of the area occupied by Jenssen Crater. This is a very old hexagonal shaped crater which is split by a major rille (Rimae Jenssen) as well as being truncated by newer more prominent craters such as Fabricius and Metius. There are also some interesting valley structures nearby (Vallis Rheita) which has a radial association with the nearby Mare Nectaris.

The second image of the evening is of the crater Petavius which is a is a large lunar impact crater located to the southeast of the Mare Fecunditatis, near the southeastern lunar limb. The convex crater floor has been resurfaced by lava flow, and displays a rille system named the Rimae Petavius. The large central mountains are a prominent formation with multiple peaks.

Finally, I moved on to collecting data for a waxing crescent moon (4 days old) mosaic of the illuminated area. A combination of the camera chip size (DMK 21AU04.AS Mono, 1/4" sensor at 640x480 pixels), and my need for an "extra large" overlap area between the panes resulted in a 54 pane mosaic being created. I setup IC capture to collect 1000 frames for each pane at 60fps, leaving the exposure, gain and gamma settings the same for each pane (which made processing much easier later).

The image below is a thumbnail of the resultant mosaic. To view a full size version of the mosaic click here.

Thanks for looking.

Steve

[nightfisher]

Really good captures, you should be pleased with them

[Paxo]

Thanks Jules, it's been a while since I've done any lunar work.

Steve

[Radman40]

Excellent images...thanks for posting.

How much difference do you find the filter makes? How done any 'with and without' images for comparison?

[Paxo]

The IR pass filter made a massive difference, the seeing was much steadier. Unfortunately I didn't have time to do a comparison between with and without, however, output on the screen, there was significantly more atmospheric disturbance without.

Steve