Lunar Sunset Timelapse - 8th June 2015

[MarsG76]

Hi All,

A while back I had an idea to do a timelapse of the moon to see if I would see any shadow moving as the Moon orbits Earth and the sun sets or rises from the terminator vantage point.

I searched on Google, here and various other popular astronomy forum sites as well as YouTube and could not find any videos that were what I was thinking of, the closest I found was either a timelapse video of the moon moving across the sky, or a timelapse of the lunar phases, some LRO videos etc but nothing with the closeup of the shadow moving across the surface.

I finally had my opportunity to collect the data... The animation consists a stack of 45 seconds @ 30fps captured every 150 seconds. There was a fair amount of haze and high altitude cloud at my location and the seeing was quite poor, so I used a 685nm IR Pass filter to try to cut through the bad seeing. The capture time was between 00:23 - 05:39 AEST (14:23 - 19:39 - 7 June 2015 UT).

This was captured using a Celestron NexStar 8SE on a CGEM mount, using a Imaging source DMK21au618 CDD and a Televue 2.5X powermate for a closer view.

I'm going to do this timelapse again later when I have good seeing and the moon is again at a phase that around the first or last quarter mark to try to get more shadow movement. I'll also grab a frame every 2 minutes to get more frames and get a smoother animation.

https://youtu.be/sFmoODjLNLo

I've also attached the first and last frame comparison side by side.

Thanks for looking.

Mariusz

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

very nice work!

[GreatAttractor]

Perfect! I've had plans for such a time-lapse for some time now, wasn't sure if the shadow change would be significant. Thank you for verifying this

[xtreemchaos]

thats a cool vid,its great to see the shadows move,good detail.thanks for sharing..charl..

[MarsG76]

Thank you all for the feed back.
 

Perfect! I've had plans for such a time-lapse for some time now, wasn't sure if the shadow change would be significant. Thank you for verifying this

I was wondering the same thing, whether there would be any significant movement of the shadow. I thought that there is no videos of a time-lapse like this (that I could find online) because there isn't enough movement to be worthwhile during the whole night, but I also thought what if others are thinking the same thing and I have nothing to lose to try it.

thats a cool vid,its great to see the shadows move,good detail.thanks for sharing..charl..

I was stoked to see the movement. The night wasn't the clearest with some hzae coming and going but it was definitely worth while... I'm planning to do it again but when the seeing is clear(er), during a first or last quarter and capture more frames.

[xtreemchaos]

i look forward to seeing your next ones..charl.

[Pete Presland]

Quite a bit of difference there.

[MarkRadice]

Fantastic!  It's amazing to see the difference over a few hours. 

I have often thought of doing a similar project but work commitments and energy levels mean I have never pulled my finger out!  I imagine a day or two either side of full moon when the moon rises near-sunset and the terminator is away from the limb to give the most hours would be best.

I look forward to your next video.

Mark

[MarsG76]

Fantastic!  It's amazing to see the difference over a few hours. 

I have often thought of doing a similar project but work commitments and energy levels mean I have never pulled my finger out!  I imagine a day or two either side of full moon when the moon rises near-sunset and the terminator is away from the limb to give the most hours would be best.

I look forward to your next video.

Mark

I think most movement visible will be during first/last quarter.... But I agree about the most imaging time is during a full moon time.... 

[Tim99]

Now!  Right there are some awesome moon pics!

[KE400]

Nice job, great work

[MarsG76]

Now!  Right there are some awesome moon pics!

Thanks, but the pics are the first and last frame of a time-lapse animation.. have a look at the youtube link...