Supermoon 12-3-17 from the SE USA

[Luna-tic]

The late afternoon sky looked promising, but as dusk arrived, there was developing cirrostratus wisps which turned into a general nebulous haze. I'd already started setting up, so I thought I'd see what I could get. First is a single image through my Edge HD800, prime at f/7, 1/200 sec at ISO 200. Frame is slightly cropped to enlarge the image.

I tried many different setups tonight; prime with and without the .7 reducer, through my Vixen flip mirror, so I could better see to focus,  and with an extension tube holding a couple of different EP, a 13mm and 25 mm Plossl. The haze kept the focus from being sharp enough to use the magnified images; while they are focused, the sharp detail is missing.

The second shot was made as I started tearing down to go inside. I took my DSLR (Nikon D3400) off the scope and put my 18-55mm zoom on and took a picture of the telescope aimed at the Moon. It's 18mm, f/3.5 at ISO 3200, 1/4 second. I handheld the camera, braced against the cart I take my scope to the field in. I did some cleanup processing to try and bring the stars out a little better. You can see Orion's belt just to the left of the mount, Betelgeuse just by the counterweight, Rigel just to the right of the mount, and Aldebaran above and to the right of the moon. I tried to bring out the Hyades better, but no joy. I like the spot of light exiting the back of the T-tube.  You can see how hazy it had started getting.

While I was changing to my T-tube early on, a jet flew across the Moon, leaving a contrail. I missed it, my luck; would have been a great photo.

[triperidot]

Nice report. I've seen a lot of photos on social media as well.

[Luna-tic]

January and February are also supposed to be Supermoons, hopefully the skies will be clearer. I went back and looked at all the shots I took last night, and fiddled with some in an attempt to improve on them. Unfortunately, there's no button to click that will improve focus. Here's a couple of the better ones, using eyepiece projection. I don't know why, and hopefully you guys may have suggestions, but I can get the image sharp and clear in the rear screen of my DSLR; when I get the "replay" image after the shutter closes, it's never as clear, always looks a bit out of focus. I'm using a Nikon D3400 and wireless remote shutter release, and shooting from Live View (which has the mirror locked up), so I'd like to think there isn't any vibration from the process that would break the sharp focus. This only happens noticeably when doing an EPP shot, never at prime. I realize that contrast is most lacking at Full Moon, and edges will show up better with shadows. Langrenus was made at prime at native f/10, the other two were made through a 25mm Plossl in an extension tube.

I will say, that while I was composing the shots, you could occasionally see the high cloud movement across the moon surface, so I understand that could be a factor as well. I also found a few flecks on a couple of my EP's that needs cleaning. If you look closely at the picture of Tycho, it appears as though someone is parachuting to the moon's surface on the right hand margin. :-P