Observing the Moon
Our nearest neighbour
in space, and a fine site through binoculars or a small telescope.
The Moon shows amazing features at different times of its lunar
cycle. Catching the late or early lunar faces throws up incredible
shadows highlighting a range of features from huge mountains to
vast flat oceans. Many interesting craters and mountain ranges
exhibit fascinating detail as the Sun rises above them to illuminate
earlier unseen detail.
, , ,,,
Two images of the lunar
terminator taken 24 hours apart. In the left image it is possible
to see the way in which the more oblique Sun shows such detail
in the crater Copernicus, and the two smaller craters, Reinhold
and Lansberg respectively. The feature towards the terminator
is Agatharchides.
As the terminator moves
further round in the right image the above features are apparently
flattened by the angle of the light. Other feature such as the
crater Kepler ( at 5'o clock from Copernicus) come into view.
Towards the bottom the terminator passes to the edge of Mare Humorum,
lighting up the area of Rupes Lieberg a fault area 180 Km long.
Also nicely highlighted is the crater at the top of Mare Humorum,
Gassendi, clearly showing the central peaks.
The craters Archimedes,
Autolycus, and Anstillus in the Mare Imbrium. The Montes Appenninus
and the crater Erastosthenes can be seen at the end of the range.
This mountain range is the site of the Apollo 15 landing site.
As there is lots of
light, it provides a great start for astronomical imaging. I started
out with an Astrovid 2000 B & W video camera, and have also
tried three digital cameras. The most recent being the Basler
digital camera which has a resolution of 1300 x 1030. This camera
is primarily used for microscopy applications, but works very
well on the Moon through both my refractors. These images were
taken using a Takahashi FS128 with a Sony DKC-CM30 digital camera
at prime focus.
Additional Lunar observations
are detailed below
Lunar Imaging with an Astrovid 2000 video camera
Lunar
imaging with a Sony DKC-CM30 digital Camera
Lunar
Imaging with a Basler High Resolution digital camera system
The
Occultation of Saturn 16th April 2002
Hi Resolution Lunar Images
Observing
the Sun ...
Astronomy
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