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When the moon becomes a nuisance...


emadmoussa

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Remember your first telescope? If so, then you remember your first target...the MOON!

I honestly don't know anybody who didn't make the moon his first target. In all fairness it looks fascinating even through a department store telescope. However, some of us divert and find their magic in DSOs. And of course, only then you start to realize ....Oh God!! There we go..the moon is up again. On sabbatical until it's gone.

Personally, I spent awful lot of time scanning the grooves on the lunar surface and registered a number of anomalies some of which have been interpreted by close match-up with lunar maps, others seem to have disappeared. That was enchanting in itself, but now since my main targets are way beyond our solar system or even our Galaxy, I find it hard not to resent whenever the moon is up and shinning. And for some weird reason it feels like a very long time.

I could reluctantly just dedicate these days for lunar observing if weather allows, but unfortunately doesn't seem feasible at the moment since the moon is either behind the house or behind the trees - which have grown dramatically in the past year or two. So..yes...DSO observing is increasingly limited for 2 weeks to come.

I'm just saying...

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since my main targets are way beyond our solar system or even our Galaxy, I find it hard not to resent whenever the moon is up and shinning....DSO observing is increasingly limited for 2 weeks to come.

Ay, I can appreciate the sentiment. Add a little cloud to the mix and a little rain and I imagine that 2 weeks begins to look like a few days  :embarrassed: 

I actually find myself looking forward to the arrival of the Moon. But then most of the time I concentrate on the moon, planets and binary stars from my city home and save up for those precious moments when I can get out to a dark site.

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The moon sucks when imaging but I always have a gander through my bins. I remember getting my 16inch LB the moon was the first target and it was like I was on a lunar orbiter the details and cliffs and shadows I could see blew me away

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I am working on an ambitious plan to re-land humans on the moon, they will be armed with black paint so I can continue with imaging DSO's during the inevitable clear skies that accompany a full moon.

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I can honestly say I don't think I've looked at the moon through a telescope for a good six months or so. In fact, I've been rather unfairly classing it as the ultimate light pollution (I can hear the late great SPM tutting in my ear as I type this :eek:). My suspicion is that it's simply a matter of effort setting up the telescope. I'm pretty much a DS devotee, and don't mind the 30 or so minutes it takes to set up the dob (+ a good 50 mins for cool down) if I'm granted a full night of unobstructed observing, but all this for a lunar session? hmmm, must be getting lazy. I often wonder if I had a small(ish) grab n' go frac in my collection if I'd spend more time observing our closest celestial friend... in fact, I'm almost certain. Right, where's my wallet...

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I have not looked to be honest as I tend to concentrate on brighter targets when the moon is out (like the moon!) but would a narrowband filter (Oiii or UHC) work well on the moonshine especially if observing in the other bit of the sky?

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I think it's more the clouds that are the problem. The moon is very courteous in getting out of the way for a while, but those little clouds think it's funny to hang around when the moon is out of the way, then clear the sky when the moon pops back to say hello, giving the moon a most unfair reputation!!

I've started imaging the moon a fair bit and now I love when it's out there to be imaged. Must get around to the Moore Moon Marathon.

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I started looking at the Lunar 100. That reintroduces fun into lunar observing (that and imaging it)

I had to check out the Lunar 100 - not a bad idea to add interest on moonlit nights.

The two following websites provide observing opportunities:-

http://www.astrospider.com/Lunar100list.htm#L100_list

http://www.rtpnet.org/~rac/obsprograms/Lunar%20100%20List_1.2.pdf

The second one has a handy recording plan.

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