Vallis Alpes, Arzacheal 12th april

[neil phillips]

Seeing was fair at times, considering it was past its highest point going down over my house roof. I have more im working on. wanted to post some resizes, but my net wont upload them. Anyway heres a couple of 100 Percents

Astronomik type 2 red filter DMK 21A 10"Europa

22:20 bst

more contrast

20:01

125%

[beamish]

Great pics Neil- picked up the rille , wish I could !!

[neil phillips]

Hi Karlo, under the right conditions if i remember correctly i think your mak can pick up the rill, go to about f30 under calm air and it should show

Thanks

[luis]

Great! What a big magnification !!! the seeing conditions must be good

[neil phillips]

Hi Luis it was changing fast, some calm moments for sure. but not perfect. the great thing about lunar is you can catch a few thousand frames to beat seeing. then just stack the top 80% or so. thats basically how i did it. but seeing was better than ive had for a while

[m_j_lyons]

very nice shots - is that a rille in Vallis Alpes?

[nightfisher]

wow, that is a very good set of images, im really hoping i can get near to that with my omc140 deluxe under the right conditions

[johnh]

Rille traced all the way down but contrast needs upping, I do love the mountains either side of vallis alpes. Arza's terracing shows well with not too much shadow. Seeing looks good here especially Arzachel with tiny craterlets looking perfect.

John.

[neil phillips]

Thanks for the comments everyone

Will be hard with a omc 140. there great scopes make no mistake. but i reckon you would need the omc 200, to match this Orion scope. under any seeing conditions.

Yes John Arzachel was the first capture i took, and the moon was at its highest position at that point. it also was not directly over my house roof like some later shots i took. i thought on screen it seemed fairly calm. ( compared to the ripples ive had of recent times ) Bear in mind these were started in low daylight John, and that does wash out detail and contrast doesnt it. Might be the reason so much discussion on contrast. I was happier for sure with some of this data. coming from really poor seeing last time i posted. Dont forget too your eye is now accustomed to wes higgins quality. so everything will look slightly off to you. But as you mention in the other post. great conditions are just not happening around here lately. So this to me. is a improvement. as its a step up from recent times. but like you i crave those still nights. Harder to come by lately unfortunately. But you know me. ill keep trying. The lure of saturn. you can say that again. with what your now getting. i would do the same. theres always times for the moon. But saturn is more important. your recording history in hi res.. this year will go down, as a remakable time for storms on saturn. No question

[brianb]

Terrific images there ... probably the best Vallis Alpes I've seen with only 10" ... really excellent, you should be very proud of these!

[Space Cowboy]

Fantastic shots Neil...almost hard to believe they are taken through a "10 scope..more like from a lunar lander!

[neil phillips]

Thanks again guys its good to be able to image the moon again, it almost seems like a curse. everytime i get a chance seeing is dire, but i took a chance this early evening setting up in daylight, filming in low daylight. lots of drift just plonking the mount north but the early evening air did seem better than ive had of late.. and the scope coped with temperatures better too i think. Early evening early morning. sometimes have been my best memories

[oldfruit]

Yet again you have managed to capture detail that the rest of us can only chase like a ghost at the moment. Great captures and like always, thanks so much for sharing. It is pictures like this that has and continues to inspire a new generation of Astronomers. Hell!! Even my daughter (Princess) knows the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn and she is 3 years old on 04/05/2011. We look at your images and wish we could do like this, but for now, while we cannot, we will be happy, more than happy to share your great images. Thanks Neil.

[neil phillips]

Its messages and support like that. Which make me want to help each and every up and coming astronomy imager, reach there goals.

Regardless of there pockets. i too struggle to get the equipment, and images that i desire. But for those starting out. with the small skywatchers, ( and they are very popular obviously) it brings a whole world of astronomy wonder, and astronomy imaging technique into there lives. That will always be a great thing. no matter what someones level. or pocket is.

Its a great thing to share a interest. and all help and grow together as much as we can. Maybe for some, as there interest and pocket grows. Astronomy in the uk will be very well served by the army of amatures that are learning on these forums and elswhere. It takes a particular person to want to spend hours in a feild often getting no where. But from what i see, i think they are the nicest people on the planet. If the whole world was as united as what this interest does for us. then there wouldnt so much strife in the world im sure. Old fruit many thanks for that message. it makes my images more important to me. to know it could be inspiring to you. im inspired too. from the guy with the small mak, to DP

[oldfruit]

Neil, you do, and you continue to inspire me, and i am sure many other amateur astronomer with the images that you take and share on SGL and any other forum you may choose. We are on occasion blown away by the detail shown on your images,( and i am sure that i am not alone when i say this?)and wonder how you acheive the results that you do. A brief explanation for the folks that are unable to decipher your signature?

[neil phillips]

Hi Again its hard to put it in a nutshell for those that are not getting closer to what i and others seem to occasionaly get. There are really different levels of expertise and performance. And dont think for one moment i dont look up to the likes of Damien p. What John h has achieved i also look up to. Nick s. theres so many guys. And often it can boil down to a few major things. like the telescope thats being used. the location you image from ( some locations are just forever turbulant ) but from my experiance that is rare.

The overiding thing i think i have learned is you need a good instrument. and good technique. Problem is for the most part big scopes under good seeing will generally perform to a much higher level. what does this mean. well it means i want a bigger scope. A C14 would be nice to mess with for a few months i can tell you.

just like the guy with a small mak. might want to mess with my scope for a bit. Its not a question i actually like answering. because we get back to pockets again. And i could not do this kind of level with a 5" mak. so that is the kind of question i hate.

But your asking me. so im telling you. Another problem is, with a big scope but poor technique you would be surprised, how some can not achieve the greatness of what say Pete L achieves. everything is important. the scope, the collimation. the location. the skill of the imager. both at capture, and def at processing.

Technique is clearly a big one though. but most might say location. depending how good your technique is, will depend on how much the location affects your potentiall.

I was once told by a pretty much acomplished amature astronomer, who has websites explaining how to do this, and how to do that. that he could not understand how i do it. he eventually said to me, my technique must be better. but there are guys out there who do better things than me with similar equipment. Emil K for starters, the guy is a genius, images are sublime with a 10" scope. but then hes location looks better than mine. hes camera equipment is better than mine. so you see, everything adds up, and we just do what we can with the things we are blessed to have i guess.

But i never stop trying to go foward, i will be changing cameras at some point. so you can bet. if seeing calms here. ill be putting all my knowledge and perfecting the equipment, ( playing with a new mirror cell as i write this ) collimation ect so that. when i get the conditions. just once in a while, i know i can do no better than what i have to work with. At some point i might write some of the techniques down if people are interested, but most of it is known anyway. and my technique isnt nothing magical. it just works for me. with free software. from things i just taught myself. Hope im making sense Phew