Lunar full disk with some closeups from the 15th

[ONIKKINEN]

Seeing was pretty good, but the Moon was still quite low in the sky at 20-25 degrees. Full disk shot is with an 8'' F/4.4 newtonian + paracorr at around F/5 and the 678MC. 6 panels of 700 frames each, of which the best 50 was stacked for each one. Composite in microsoft ICE, lucy richardson deconvolution and unsharp mask in imppg.

Full disk: resized to 75% of original (still an enormous size...):

Next up is a closeup of 2 prominent craters. I think these are Hercules and Atlas, but dont quote me on that, my lunar knowledge is quite thin. Shot with 2.5x barlow and a budget IR filter, aka the Celestron #25 Mars filter that passes everything redder than 600nm. The field of view here is bigger than the diffraction limited field of an F/4.4 newtonian with a 2.5x barlow, so the edges show some softness, especially on the first one.

Best 2% from 10k frames:

Then finally a closeup of Mare crisium under sunset, same capture details as previous:

The 2 closeups are pretty much untouched from what AS!3 spit out with the sharpened, blend 30% raw option ticked. Tried processing further from both the sharpened and soft files AS!3 spits out but this is where its at.

Very happy with these last 2 in particular, they are by far and not with a close margin, the sharpest images i have yet to take through my scope. Almost couldn't believe my eyes when i saw the stacked image for the first time! I have no idea what went right this time, or what went wrong on previous times i tried (and failed, miserably) lunar closeups.

[astrolulu]

Great resolution. It is rare for this phase of the moon, which is most often photographed relatively low above the horizon. The same night I took a picture from Poland with the 8 '' C8-N newtonian and it looks almost identical. I think we got a good seeing that night.

[Laurieast]

On 16/08/2022 at 12:41, ONIKKINEN said:

I think these are Hercules and Atlas

Yes, you are correct! 

Nice close up's, I do like the Mare Crisium.