Moon shots

[Tony G]

Hi All,

Just a few shots of the moon from the morning (early) of the 5th August, all taken with the Toucam Pro II through 125mm phenix refractor,



this shows Crater Eratosthenes and Montes Apenninus.



The main crater here is Ptolemaeus with Crater Ammonius breaking the surface of this otherwise smooth basin.



finally (for the moment) we have Crater Plato and Mare Imbrium and you can just make out Vallis Alpes to the right of the image.
Hopefully the Canon will be used shortly and I can image some other objects, other than the Moon and Planets, but I ain't complaining with doing this as you still find different views of the same areas which look completely different during the phases of the Moon, with the contrasts of light and dark.

Hopefully I can process the others soon and post them, but until then

Tony G

[JohnP]

Excellent Tony - all very nice images - lots of details & great focus. Did you use a barlow on these at all? What is the focal length/ ratio of the Phoenix? I love images of the moon & planets so keep them coming please.

Cheers,  John

[Mike]

WOW!!!

[Tony G]

Hi John

The first 2 images are with a x4 barlow and the last is with a x3, but I think that the AVI were too short and that they could have been better if a longer AVI was taken.(usually I'll run the avi for 1.5 mins at 5fps, but this must have been set at 10fps without me knowing, so only got half to process)

The Phenix (no O) is 700mm (f/5.5) and has a 127mm aperture.
These scopes come in 102mm and 150mm and are quite cheap compared with other refractors and are well worth the money in my opinion, (even though I had slight problem to start with, it was sorted out very quickly and I was happy )

Hope this helps.

Tony G

[Ian]

they're looking good mate, how was the seeing when you took the avis?. It was the Phenix (without the O) that you showed us at the last ctte meeting wasn't it. Where did it come from?

[Tony G]

Ian,

the seeing was excellent that night (morning) and it was the first time in ages that I had a good night on the weekend with no work the following day, I saw Mars for the first time in along time which I hope to capture soon as it was to late (early) to do anything that session.
The scope was purchased from www.seeviewo.org and is the one that Jim used fromme for a while. Seeviewo were very helpful and there are write ups about these scopes on the website as well, which may help people into comtenplating whether to purchase one or not.

Tony G

[JohnP]

Scope looks real nice Tony & like you say good value for money - I look forward to have a look through this at DSC.. Looks like quite a 'big beast'

John

[Fay]

Tony,

what lovely images. I really want to do some Moon one's, I have not taken any good one's of the Moon & planets.

Is it better to take avi's rather than single shots do you know?

Fay   

[Tony G]

Hi Fay,

I'd say the AVI is better, and then processed through Registax to produce a sharper image than a single shot, you haven't forgotten all the techniques of the Toucam already have you?????

Tony G

[Fay]

I meant a single shot with another camera, eg SX. I have not tried yet.

Fay

[Mike]

Fay the Starlight cameras are not very good for very bright objects like the moon, unless you put a neutral density filter in front of it or something like that, as they are designed for long exposures. Although they can do short exposures, they don't quite go short enough for something as bright as the moon. The advantage of a webcam is you can take thousands of shots, stack them and average them and therefore get a much cleaner result. The beauty of that is it compensates for atmospheric abberation which is a major problem with the moon more so than any other sky object.

[Fay]

Thanks, Mike

Fay

[Tony G]

Just to make everyone aware, I have not studied the names of the craters on the moon, it just seems that way (now I know where Tony Buick gets all his information ) but I've used this website http://www.lunarrepublic.com/atlas/index.shtml
(by the way, my images look similar to the ones on this website, and that's where the similarity ends, alright)

Tony G

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi,

There great images in focus and everything, just to let you know I image at 10fps on the moon and also if you have a red filter it works really well!

Chris


P.S. Get the Mak out and get closer!