99% illuminated Moon - 9th January 2020

[Stu]

Having seen some rare clear skies and the very near full Moon this evening, I thought I would put my little 72mm refractor out for a quick visual session. The seeing was surprisingly stable, and I got some excellent views of the tiny terminator running around the limb of the Moon. I mainly used the 24mm Panoptic for low power, and then a Nag zoom for higher power (x72 to x144), but I even popped in the Vixen 2.4mm HR giving x180, which is crazy for such a small scope. The image held up really well, the issue was my eyes, specifically floaters and other rubbish floating around but the image was sharp.

I decided to take a few snaps with my phone, as much as anything to record the features so I could check out what I had observed afterwards. For these pictures I was using the 72mm on my Giro-WR mount, Baader BBHS T2 diagonal, 7.2 to 21.5mm Zoom at highest power (x60), and my Samsung S9. Unusually I also used my Celestron NeXYZ mount which worked well. Anyone out in their gardens must think I'm made, standing there saying 'cheese' into my phone 🤣🤣

I used the Pro mode on the phone camera app to control exposure, focusing having zoomed in digitally. Then just a bit of cropping and tweaking in PS Express.

An added bonus was being able to get Lorna (aged 5 3/4 🥰) to pop her wellies and head torch on and join me in the garden for a few minutes to have a look before bedtime. She enjoyed it very much 😁😁.

[geoflewis]

Nice report and images Stu

[Rob]

A nice read there Stu. Like the shots also. It still staggers me on how the magnification can be pushed on these small APO's... Its incredible really!.

Best Rob

p.s - Roll on Mars in October to push the mags even more on these little ED beauties!.

[Stu]

19 minutes ago, Rob said:

Roll on Mars in October to push the mags even more on these little ED beauties!.

Thanks Rob. Yes, I recall using a 2.5mm Nagler in my William Optics ZS SD66mm on a previous Mars Opposition which gave x155 I think. Could see the ice cap and some dark markings if I recall correctly. Looking forward to it this year too!

[Pete Presland]

Lovely report and image. I cant wait for my grandchildren to be old enough to enjoy the heavens.