COPERNICUS AND OTHER BLACK HOLES

[paulastro]

Out at 3.20 this morning after having seen a lovely bright waning crescent Moon through an upstairs window.  By the time I was downstairs it was pouring with rain, but I waited a few minutes and managed to get a few pics, though  and in and out of cloud.  I wouldn't have bothered but Copernicus was right on the terminator , the rim lit up but the interior completely black, very spectacular.  Likewise in the south Wilhelm and Longomantus (separated by Montanari which was partly illuminated) were also only lit by their outer walls.  Alas I only had a total of 33 mts with the Moon in and out of thick rain clouds before I gave up, never havind had the chance to use my binoviewer.  While I was set up with the 120ED on the AZ4 with the Olympus E-M5 Mk11 at prime focus, it actually rained a bit and two rather close flashes of lightening illuminated the whole scene. The whole Moon shot was cropped to show Copernicus, and the photo of the southern highlands is a crop from another photo.  The seeing was rather poor and variable so no single picture was sharp across the whole Moon.  Whole Moon pic taken at 3.24am, 1/200 of a second at 800 asa.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by paulastro