Archive for the ‘Lunar’ Category

The Moon on June 30

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

The Moon from early this morning at 1:44 am MDT, lunation 15.2 days.

Full moon on June 30

Images acquired with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera (ISO 200 and 1/400 sec exposure). Forty images each for northern and hemisphere aligned and stacked with Registax4 and then composited with Photoshop Elements2. Location was Louisville, CO; the sky was clear, no wind; temperature was 66 °F, transparency was very good, and turbulence 6/10.

The moon at lunation 8

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007

The image from last evening, June 22, 2007 at 9:40 pm MDT at lunation 8.02 days. Lots of great stuff near the terminator on day 8, crater Cassini and Archimedes in the north, Ptolemeus and Alphonsus in the south, and the Vallis Alpes — there are many, many great features to see.

Image of the moon at day 8

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope with F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera (1/640 sec exposure, ISO 400). Stacked 40 with Registax4 and then cropped and brightness adjusted with Photoshop Elements2. Louisville, CO temperature around 70° F, no wind, no clouds, transparency very good, but only 5/10 turbulence.

Moon and Regulus

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

Not one of my best days, a small cloud was in exactly the wrong place at the time of the occulation so I missed that part. I did see the re-appearance about a second late. I glanced at my notebook to check the time. I then had problems setting up the webcam. Nonetheless here it is. The daytime shot came out better than I expected.

Moon and Regulus

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F6.3 focal reducer, and Phillips Toucam 840K webcam. Temperature 86°F, no wind, 14% humidity, turbulence 6/10, and mostly clear skies — other than the one cloud previously mentioned.

Moon at lunation 1

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

Here is the moon from Friday evening, almost exactly 1 day after new (24 hrs and 1 minute). It is the youngest crescent I’ve imaged thus far. We spotted  it easily with binoculars and then naked eye 10 mintes earlier. Moon at lunation 1

Location was Fox Park, Wyoming on Friday June 15th at 9:14pm MDT. Equipment was Celestron Nexstar11, F3.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera. Single frame 1/25sec at ASA 400. Cropped, brightness enhanced, and resized with Photoshop Elements2. Sky was mostly clear, temperature around 50° F, no wind, high humidity, transparency very good, and turbulence 6/10.

The moon on May 26, 2007

Sunday, May 27th, 2007

The moon last evening at lunation 10.43, 11:50 pm MDT. The skies didn’t look promising last evening, it was mostly cloudy and light rain fell around 9. However, the skies cleared around 10:30 pm so I set up the scope to take a look at Sinus Iridium (the crescent shape near the left top in the below photo). Actually Sinus Iridium or the “Bay of Rainbows” is half of a 162 mile (260 km) wide impact crater whose southeastern side has disappeared.

The moon on May 26 , 2007

Image taken with Celestron Nexstar11 telescope, F6.3 focal reducer, and Canon Xti camera (ISO 400, 1/500 sec shutter). Sky was mostly clear, temperature 58° F, turbulence between 5 and 6/10, no wind, transparency quite good, but dew and high humidity. Location was Louisville, CO. Images aligned and stacked with Registax4 (17/40 images, wavelet filters (12,8,1,1,1,1). Cropped, enhanced, unsharped mask with Photoshop Elements2.

And here is a view of Sinus Iridium through the Phillips Toucam at cassegrain focus on the Nexstar11.

Sinus Iridium area