Animation shows libration and size change - 99-42% Moon

[CKemu]

Lunar Phases by Chris Kennedy, on Flickr

Click image to see the video, and watch full screen for some of those details to pop.

Over several mornings I've shot large mosaics of the Moon, with steadily decreasing seeing conditions. Despite breaking my body clock and surviving on naps, this has been a worthwhile endevour as I've always wanted to show libration, wasn't sure I'd manage it with so few data points, but happily this 4K video (well stop frame animation) shows the wobble nicely and the ever changing surface details.

All shot through my LX90 8" SCT with the ZWO ASI290mm camera at prime focus, the largest image needed 42 panels, the smallest 24. Each panel was made from a 15 second video, taking the best 200 frames to stack, mosaic stitched in Microsoft ICE and then ported to Photoshop for a sharpen and levels tweak. Frames dropped in to Premiere Pro and looped for the final sequence.

[wouterdhoye]

Very  nice indeed. Something that is also on my to do list.. if I would ever get enough cear nights in a row. Well done ?

Wouter.

[Pete Presland]

It has turned out very well, an excellent reward for your efforts.