Ghostly Moon

[jgs001]

Not an easy one, there was bog all contrast. I couldn't tell if I'd actually managed to get focus or not, actually seeing the moon in the viewfinder was difficult. Shot at 1200mm

[Psychobilly]

Very nice "etherial" look and excellent focus....nice in the natural blue colors as well...

If it clears later i might spend som etime trying to get to grips with imaging the moon as its one of my new years resolutions... love thy neighbour rather than hate its guts....

Better think about getting the 8" back in shape... although i'll probably start with a webcam on the Megrez 72 ... no point in trying to get past first base on a first date...

Billy...

[jgs001]

Thank you. Good luck for tonight, you're going to enjoy that ...

[Doc]

Very nice indeed love the blue sky really adds to the photo.

[Psychobilly]

Ah well my first daliance with Luna was cut short by clouds rolling in from the NE ... oh well maybe this reconcilliation was never meant to be....

Needed A to add soem T-piece extension tubes between the 2" pushfit T and the T mount to get focus... also needed them when i tried the 2" T-mount x2 teleconv... ah welll better luck next time maybe - got tto get this sorted in time for the occulation of M45...

[jgs001]

Cheers Mick.

Sounds about right, although I thought you were going webcamming Billy ?

[Psychobilly]

Glad i tried the DSLR on the "72" without the FFIII though as that will be the kit i am using for the moon/M45 Occulation

yeah tried the wbcam as well...

I think the 8" collimation needs sorting and the turbulent view made me seasick.... lol....and i will have to learn how to use registrax...as the fist attempt was pitiful...

I was pleasantly suprised that the scope woke up fom hibernation and moved from the park position and put the moon dead center of the FOV after being off for 2 days..will use taht more often now...

Billy...

[jgs001]

Gotcha. If you don't mind me asking, how are you planning on shooting the occultation ?

Not good seeing huh ? as for learning to use registax, I can't help there. .

[Psychobilly]

Im planning to image the pleiades the night before the occulation usign the exact setup that I will use for the occulation... on the night of the occulation i will image the moon and take a single exposure that has the moon burnt out and a few stars visible in the image. I will then overlay this on the M45 image from the previous night... and mark the position of the moon... then i will drop in the correctly exposed moon in one pic and one exposed to show the earthshine in another these shots will have the rest of the sky transparent....

A Cheat but should make an interesting image...

Last time I tried this I used Historic M45 data with a moon image taken through a scope with a "moon" taken using DSLR and Telephoto and tried to combine them... I think the approach I am planning to use this time may work better....

here was the last very crude attempt...

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php/topic,31587.0.html

Billy...

[jgs001]

Sounds interesting. M45 is to high for me to try something like that. I might try an HDR on it at 250mm though and see what comes out, assuming the clouds hold off.