A Lunar Mosaic from this morning - 3rd Nov.

[Roy Foreman]

Woke up this morning at 4am and looked out to see clear skies and a nice bright moon.  By the time I had got up, dressed, out to the observatory, got framed up and focused for the first shot,  the clouds rolled in.  Soon after it started to rain.  We've all been there.

Not to be deterred, and to make it worth while getting up so early, I waited. And waited.  By 6am it was mostly clear again and I eventually managed, through the gaps in the clouds, to secure enough data for a 7 pane mosaic of the lunar disk.

I'm quite pleased with the result, considering the conditions.

 

Vital stats :-

Celestron C9.25 XLT

Skywatcher CQ350 mount

ZWO ASI 183MM plus Proplanet 642 IR filter.

30% of 2000 frames at 19fps and gain 100

Processed in Autostakkert and Photoshop.

Full disk image plus some selective enlargements made from it.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

[jjohnson3803]

Very nice!  Since I tend to wake up around 0400, I was out yesterday morning for some lunar observing.  Your Clavius shot is spectacular!

[Roy Foreman]

Thank you, glad you like my images. The clavius pane was the first one I shot and the sky was a bit clearer for that one.  I'm normally up at 5am for work so like you no stranger to early morning skies !

[maw lod qan]

Excellent images. 

The sunlight on the mountain peaks gives you the illusion of snow.

I'm another early riser.

The three days I work I'm up at 3am. 

The terminator was over from where I saw it.

 

[Roy Foreman]

7 hours ago, maw lod qan said:

Excellent images. 

The sunlight on the mountain peaks gives you the illusion of snow.

I'm another early riser.

The three days I work I'm up at 3am. 

The terminator was over from where I saw it.

 

Thank you and wow, 3am !  Thought I was an early bird but you beat me hands down.

[John_D]

Lovely images, the closeups are great but I'm a sucker for a full disk image. One of my longer term goals is to take a full disk picture that I can print and hang on the wall.
( I've also woken at about 4 a m. the last two mornings but it's either been cloudy or raining so I've gone back to bed. Perhaps I need more committment 😁 )

[Roy Foreman]

2 hours ago, John_D said:

Lovely images, the closeups are great but I'm a sucker for a full disk image. One of my longer term goals is to take a full disk picture that I can print and hang on the wall.
( I've also woken at about 4 a m. the last two mornings but it's either been cloudy or raining so I've gone back to bed. Perhaps I need more committment 😁 )

Thank you.  I too am wanting to print a full disc image large for wall hanging, as and when I manage to take the right image.

[WestCoastCannuck]

Some outstanding detail in there Roy!   Especially given the conditions....  you can see a couple of the panels had bad seeing.....   an often seen thing in my own work.    The damn seeing won't stay still!  haha    Really well done in my book.

The sharp sections are quite something!

I did almost the exact same phase with my 140 in the wee hours. :))))))

You can really see the 9.25 pull ahead in the detail.....   mine coming shortly.

 

Clear skies

 

Mike

[Roy Foreman]

Thank you Mike. Yes, seeing variation between panels is a real pain. Usually I do several runs for each pane and pick the best one, but just lately the skies are not clear for long enough for me to do that. Look forward to seeing your version when it's done. Your smaller aperture may be less affected by the seeing.