I have been observing the Moon for the last two nights. Tonight it was six days old, meaning it is not at first quarter yet. It is really high in the sky because of the time of year, and the winds are calm which means that I can see wonderful detail in the surface, because I am not looking through turbulent winds screaming along at 100 MPH in the upper air which makes objects we view in our telescopes difficult to see because they are blurry from the high winds. The last two nights have been perfect, and I have spent an hour both nights cruising along the "terminator" the area between light and dark just looking at the destruction wrought on the moon because of it being bombarded by left over material from the formation of our solar system. It is a rugged and bleak landscape, full of craters and lava flows and ragged mountains, and it is stunningly beautiful to see. I wish you all could come to my back yard and enjoy the view through my telescope of this magnificent world.
So this is a cropped closeup of the photograph above. I hope you can see more detain in this image. PLEASE click on both of these photographs to see more detail.
Cool, Crisp & Amazing!
ReplyDeleteYour closeup photo is incredible! The details are amazing. “Battered” is the perfect word. Betsey
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! A fellow lunatic! Lookin' good Ken!
ReplyDelete-Dean
Hey Dean: Thanks for the comment, and for stopping by. I used my 106mm f/6.5 Astro Tech triplet with a 2X Barlow on it for this shot, and the Moon's image was not very large. I used my SONY a7 III full frame camera. So that's a focal length of 1,378mm. Next time I will get out my 5" f/8 Starfire which, with the 2X Barlow will give me 2,032 mm and a significantly larger image! So I bought the Stellarvue m002c Alt-Az mount and love it for quick setups. It is fine with the Astro Tech, but I wouldn't chance the Starfire on it. For that, I would use the Orion Sirius EQ mount which is a much bigger deal to setup and align. Next time... :-)
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