The Moon IS Coloured!

[Stub Mandrel]

I have enjoyed getting colourful pictures of the moon, but whenever I have looked at it, it has been grey. Until tonight.

Seeing and transparency are fantastic and I have been capturing what I hope is lovely footage of Jupiter.

While waiting for Saturn I finally got around to setting up a cheap 76mm Jessop's newt I rescued from a skip. With a 10mm ep for about x60 the moon looked lovely, proving you can observe it though a jam jar at low mag and it will always look good! Jupiter wasn't as clear as in the 50mm Tasco frac, not helped by bad atmospheric dispersion. The double double was a write off as the cheap focuser wasn't up to the task.

Just for fun I popped in my cheap 40mm plossl and went back to the moon just to enjoy seeing it full disc in a wide field.

I then went and stared at a bright computer screen to get some more captures of Jupiter, tweaking the focus.

When I came back, my night vision must have been nuked, allowing me to see the moon in colour! Most of it is grey, but the lighter seas near the terminator and north pole are clearly a tan colour, and Mare Tranquillitatus and the dark sees are a deep, almost purplish, blue.

These are not strong colours, but they were so clear I almost fell over with the shock!

So it was well worth rescuing and tidying up this little scope. ?