Moon on Dec. 10, 2006
The waning moon around 4 am Sunday morning at lunation 19.53 days.
Images were taken with Celestron Nexstar 11 telescope, F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera. Camera set at ASA 400 and 1/1250 sec shutter. I had a number of problems starting around 3 am. What should have been a 15 or 20 minute session to photograph the moon took more than hour. The scope was drifting badly in declination, I assume because it was poorly north aligned despite my efforts earlier in the evening. Focus in the angle finder on the camera didn’t agree with what the images showed despite numerous diopter adjustments. I found some loose set screws in the ring adapter but the problem persisted. I have yet to track down the cause. Also, there was a thin haze and atmospheric turbulence wasn’t great (5/10), temperature about 34°F, and no wind.
December 25th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
It’s amazing what a 10M pixel camera can do. Even with the challenges you described it a fantastic image.
This is my second Christmas with you and wish you & yours a healthy happy new year.
peter
December 25th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Thanks Peter!
Merry Christmas to you and your family as well! This past year has been lots of fun. I find it very inspiring visting your weblog as well as Andrew’s and many others as well. It is great to see what others are doing and get ideas for objects to try and techniques to use.
I’m quite pleased with the Xti thus far though lousy weather has prevented me for using it much. I’m planning on making some wall-size lunar mosaics as soon as I get shutter speed/ASA combinations a bit better (and some steady skies).