A few craters from 15 June

[jgs001]

From the 15th..

After completing the mosaic, I put the tubes between the barlow and camera... 250 of 1000 using 12-10bit mode. The conditions could have been a lot better

Mare Crisium

Patavius - Funerius

Pitiscus and surrounds I think

Enymion with Mare Humboldtianum in behind

[Earl]

They look great.

in my mind these type of images almost look like there taken of a model moon, dont no why its just the way i see them.

[Space Cowboy]

Awesome!

[jgs001]

Cheers guys, they could be much better.. but I'm quite pleased with them... at this point, the moon was hedging her bets in the hedge... so very very low...

[Brendan of Borg]

Cool!

[LukeSkywatcher]

They look great. If they were brighter they would really look amazing. I REALLY like the 1st image (Mare Crisium)

[jgs001]

Thanks guys. Paul, it's the nature of the 12-10 bit companding mode. It certainly gets more details, but at the expense of a much reduced dynamic range, and that causes issues with over exposure, and reduces the frame rate. It's a typical compromise situation... I could probably have got away with a little brighter...

[LukeSkywatcher]

"Damned if you do...damned if you dont", kind of thing.

None the less they really are some great images.

[Digz]

Excuse my ignorance John, but would you mind explaining the setup used to get these shots please, ty :-)

[jgs001]

Sorry... sure...

I used the QHY5v guide camera with a red filter and a UV/IR filter, with 60mm of extention tubing between it any my Ultima 2x Barlow. This is all connected onto my Celestron 80ED (80mm refractor). The tubes increase the magnification of the barlow by some amount, not sure how much exactly, probably by 1.5 to 2x without adding any more glass to the optical train. I did consider adding a star diagonal as well, but the seeing wasn't really up to capturing these. Mounted on my HEQ5, which is controlled by EQMOD, which makes it easy to adjust with a joystick.

The QHY5v has a choice of capture modes, 8 bit (normal), 10 bit (which has an odd issue if the shutter speed is to high with flickering) and 12-10 bit companding mode (I've no idea what that is, but the data capture is better, at the expense of a loss of dynamic range).

[Digz]

Many thanks John, appreciate the info. I never realised adding extension tubing would increase the magnification, do that apply to reflectors as well?

[jgs001]

I'd expect so. It's to do with the barlow spacing rather then the scope type.

[Digz]

Ah ok, so the extension tubing goes between the barlow and scope, that makes sense I think I read something about that somewhere. Might have to put some tubing down on my wish list of extra things to get

[jgs001]

No sorry the rubes go between te barlow and camera, therefore the scope type shouldn't make any difference.

[Digz]

ah ok, thanks for the clarification. BTW the shots are really cool and are keeping me inspired to improve my AP

[jgs001]

Thanks... Go for it.