A Very Slim Crescent - 31st July

[Roy Foreman]

It's not really the best time of year for chasing slim lunar crescents, but what the heck I gave it a go.

Taken at around 6.15pm, so in broad daylight, I could not see the moon with the naked eye, even when I knew where it was.  But with a Pro Planet 642 filter fitted it was visible for imaging, although contrast was very low.

This is a three frame mosaic taken with the 16" Reflector - 20% of 2000 frames at 19 fps and 2.5ms integration.

Processing was really tough and I didn't think I would be able to produce anything presentable, but here it is.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

[Zeta Reticulan]

Nice. I saw this with my 60mm doublet while I was searching for Mercury. I didn't find Mercury but I could see the Petavius Rille highlighted by the terminator.

[TheycallmeRiver]

Absolutely love it.  Thank you for sharing.

[Roy Foreman]

I searched for Mercury as well but like you I never found it. The moon was visible through the telescopes finder but the magnification was too low to make out many details. Thanks for your response.

[Roy Foreman]

28 minutes ago, TheycallmeRiver said:

Absolutely love it.  Thank you for sharing.

Glad you like it. The thinnest crescent I have ever attempted. Bit of a long shot but it seems to have worked !

[Zeta Reticulan]

10 minutes ago, Roy Foreman said:

I searched for Mercury as well but like you I never found it. The moon was visible through the telescopes finder but the magnification was too low to make out many details. Thanks for your response.

You're welcome. Clouds defeated my attempts at Mercury. The sky was clear until I set up lol. I switched to a zoom and a Lumicon #11 filter to try to find Petavius. There's only a brief period that the terminator highlights the rille. After a couple of days it is too washed out to see properly.

You can see it quite clearly in your picture.

[Roy Foreman]

That's great. Sheer coincidence that the illumination was favourable for my image. Even if I tried the same thing next month lunar libration would reveal different features at the terminator as you are probably aware. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Zeta Reticulan]

You're welcome. Apparently, due to libration and nutation, you can never see the Moon exactly the same twice. Unless you live over 186 years or something lol.

[Roy Foreman]

38 minutes ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

You're welcome. Apparently, due to libration and nutation, you can never see the Moon exactly the same twice. Unless you live over 186 years or something lol.

Ha ha didnt know that. If I did manage to live to be 186 I would probably have forgotten the views from the first time around!