Lunar Images - 19th Jan 24 with 10" Classical Cassegrain

[Roy Foreman]

Wow, three night of lunar imaging in a row, and in January no less.  None of the nights have had great visibility, but this was the most cloud free but with the most turbulence. The moon was dancing about all over the show. At 3045mm focal length it was a real hit and miss.

Telescope was a Stella Lyra 10" F/12 Classical Cassegrain on a Skywatcher CQ350 mount.  Love the scope, not too sure about the mount.

Camera - ZWO ASI 183MM 20Mpx with a Proplanet 642 IR filter.

30% of 2000 frames at 19fps.

10 panel mosaic for the whole disc, plus some selective enlargements.

Stacked in AS3 and processed in Photoshop.

Hope they are of interest, and thanks for looking.

[Stu]

Lovely images Roy, amazing given the seeing conditions. Great shot of Hadley Rille in amongst them. Can you post a picture of your setup? Don’t think I’ve seen a 10” CC in the wild before! 

[Roy Foreman]

50 minutes ago, Stu said:

Lovely images Roy, amazing given the seeing conditions. Great shot of Hadley Rille in amongst them. Can you post a picture of your setup? Don’t think I’ve seen a 10” CC in the wild before! 

Thanks Stu, and yes the 10" CC is a pretty amazing piece of kit.  There is now a 12" version, but I think the 10" fits a sweet spot of size, weight, and less affected by air cells, which average 10" in size.

Don't have an image of the CC in the observatory as it's too cramped to get a photo with decent perspective, but I have attached an image if it on an EQ6 AZ which I set up just for photo purposes some while ago.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Really lovely set of images. Great processing too: very sharp, but not overcooked in any way.

[Roy Foreman]

25 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Really lovely set of images. Great processing too: very sharp, but not overcooked in any way.

Thank you Michael for you kind words. I've recently changed my processing routine to try and achieve a more natural look, and from your observations it seems to have worked. Many thanks.

[Kon]

Nice set of images. I like your full mosaic in particular, it is an excellent picture.

Edited January 22 by Kon

[Roy Foreman]

33 minutes ago, Kon said:

Nice set of images. I like your full mosaic in particular, it is an excellent picture.

Thank you and glad you like them. With 10 panels the mosaic was a pain to put together, but luckily the CC has a nice even, flat field which helped.

[Glasspusher]

Excellent images, well done!

[Roy Foreman]

30 minutes ago, Glasspusher said:

Excellent images, well done!

Thank you, much appreciated. 

[Stu]

4 hours ago, Roy Foreman said:

Thanks Stu, and yes the 10" CC is a pretty amazing piece of kit.  There is now a 12" version, but I think the 10" fits a sweet spot of size, weight, and less affected by air cells, which average 10" in size.

Don't have an image of the CC in the observatory as it's too cramped to get a photo with decent perspective, but I have attached an image if it on an EQ6 AZ which I set up just for photo purposes some while ago.

Lovely! Quite fancy one of these on the AZ100 for visual 😊

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

Yes, remarkable images!   The CC has intrigued me - looks like a perfect lunar telescope, how do you find it? Is collimation a nightmare?

[Mr Spock]

Nice set of images. Lovely scope!

[Roy Foreman]

52 minutes ago, Barry Fitz-Gerald said:

Yes, remarkable images!   The CC has intrigued me - looks like a perfect lunar telescope, how do you find it? Is collimation a nightmare?

Yes the CC is an excellent lunar and planetary scope. Great for deep sky too with its wide flat field.

I didn't find collimation any more difficult that a Newt ot SCT.

It's only downside is that it is big and heavy.

[Roy Foreman]

4 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Nice set of images. Lovely scope!

Thank you and yes the CC is a great scope - virtually covers a full frame sensor with just a 2 mirror system, no correction lenses needed. Looks amazing too.

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

I really wish you hadn't said that, I can see that I am going to have a lot of trouble resisting one now.

[Roy Foreman]

7 hours ago, Barry Fitz-Gerald said:

I really wish you hadn't said that, I can see that I am going to have a lot of trouble resisting one now.

When I got mine I told my better half that it looked so amazing that I was getting it just to keep indoors to look at. When time came for first light she expressed surprise. I had to explain that you don't spend that kind of money on a scope and not use it. Fortunately its performance is as good as its looks, so you're just gonna have to get one !

[Swoop1]

Cracking images Roy.

I think I have just found my new Object Of Desire. Beautiful scope!

[Roy Foreman]

Thank you on both counts. Yes a great scope, go for it !