A journey to the moon, 20-01-17

[johnfosteruk]

1 day after last quarter and the moon was looking lovely with Jupiter and Spica sitting nearby. Had some lovely views of Jupiter first, then over to the Moon craterlet hunting in Clavius. Very still air made me a happy bunny.

After vis, onto imaging at about 5am.

First I know some people like the widefield views so the moon and Jupiter with the 50-200 at 78mm. Composite of 2 single frames, one to correctly expose the Moon and one for Jupiter. 

Next, the moon at 200mm, stack of 29 still frames aligned and stacked in AS!2.

Next we go closer, with the frac at prime focus, 50 of 130 still frames cropped and aligned in Pipp, stacked in AS!2, finished with Registax and Photoshop. (image is reduced to 1452x1452px) Contrast/levels seem off on this one now I've posted it here. Mono as after processing everything else I couldn't be bothered with RGB this morning

Increased the scale with 1.5x effective barlow in the 5" reflector. 130 of 200 still frames, same process as above. Also mono. (this one reduced to 2973x2200

 

And finally, closer still. same setup but with a 2.5 barlow added. 1900 video frames at 1080p, same process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[laudropb]

Very nice set John. Felt like I was on a spacecraft approaching the Moon.

[Astro Imp]

Lovely work John, Clavius is a great feature, whenever it is available I always spend ages looking around.

[nightfisher]

John, very nice Luna journey with good crisp shots well done that man

[johnfosteruk]

Thank you chaps. 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovely sequence of images!

[johnfosteruk]

Thanks Michael.