The Moon

[Steaphany]

Here are some more photos from my Orion Apex 90mm Ø Maksutov Cassegrain of the Moon.

This was shot on January 30th at 12:39 UT which was right after Sun set. The sky was still too bright to align the TeleTrack Mount, so this was done static. The SD14 was set to ISO 100, 1/5th Second shutter, with a Auto White Balance:

View attachment 1192

This was shot on February 3rd at 20:41 UT which was mid afternoon here in Texas. The TeleTrack again was static, and the SD14 was set to ISO 100, 1/80th Second shutter, with a Auto White Balance:

View attachment 1193

I did no flat frame compensation on either image and this is the clarity from a single exposure right from the SD14's X3F files. The optical diameter of the Moon is roughly a half degree, so this should be a good measure of the field of view for the SD14 - Orion 90mm Maksutov Cassegrain combo. A point to keep in mind with the day light shot, photography through the atmosphere during the day can be quite challenging since the Sun's heating causes random refractive distrubances, which is why stars twinkle at night.

 

[netzuser]

Hi Steaphany,
your telescope does a great job.
I did some shots on jan 06 2009 with my 150-500 OS
f 8 1/40 ISO 200 SD14 ~16:00 GMT
The bright shade is caused by the double window pane,I was to lazy to go outside.
This is the full frame

View attachment 1200

and cropped a bit

View attachment 1201

Regards
Uwe

 

[Steaphany]

You still captured a great image

 

[Guest .]

Hi All,

very nice shots.

I somewhere had it here in the forum ... now again ... my MOON.

SIGMA SD14 / SIGMA 80-400mm EX OS + 2X Extender = 800mm / F20 for optimal sharpness / tripod

View attachment 1204

See you with nice pictures

Klaus

 

[Steaphany]

Nice Full Moon Klaus.

Here is a pointer when shooting Moon photos, avoid the Full phase. Just as landscape photos look more vibrant and less flat when the Sun is creating nice long shadows, the same hold true for the Moon.

When the disk of the Moon is partially illuminated, the region along the illuminated side/dark side terminator will show nice 3D effects from long shadows and the mountain peaks highlighted against dark backgrounds.

Take a look at Uwe's chopped close up, in the upper left edge of the lit region of the Moon, you can see the peaks of the Mountains surrounding the Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) while the Sinus Iridum itself in still in partial darkness.

To help everyone out, here is a link to a Earth facing Moon Map which identifies the names of the various features:

http://www.penpal.ru/astro/

 

[Robert.4507]

Hi Steaphany,

Wow this post has a lot of useful information about astro photography! I found it all very interesting, especially the link containing the names of the moons features. Likewise, I thought I would share a couple of my moon shoots. The one with the small plane is not manipulated during post processing, the plane flew in front with the timed exposure catching it. Funny the odds of that happening....

Good luck with your pictures,

Robert

 

[Steaphany]

Robert,

If you like what's in this thread, check out the thread I started "SD14 in Astrophotography" under the category of "Nature & Wildlife" where the discussion goes into a lot of detail with equipment, shooting, and post processing.

(Maybe this forum need a category just on astrophotography ;-) )

If the weather was more cooperative, I would be out photographing the constellation Orion. This evening's forecast to have patchy fog and it's already getting humid. Tomorrow's forecast looks a lot better.

My plan for the Orion photo is to shoot with my Sigma 28mm EX DG Aspherical Macro with the SD14's internal infrared filter removed. I will shoot a series of exposures through a Hoya 25A filter to capture the Hα 656nm emission from the numerous nebula in that part of the sky. I'll be following this with a series of exposures through a LDP X-NiteCC1 for the visible part of the spectrum. When stacked, I should have a nice wide field view of Orion with the nebula clearly visible.

 

[tc95]

800mm Nikkor..

Well I finally got a chance to take this puppy out with SD14...

These are just a few shots today....I will follow-up with some cleaner pictures....

These were taken around 7pm April 6th...the moon was going in and out of light clouds....

The Lens...Nikkor's 800mm F5.6 I also have a TC-301 and TC-14b that I will be using later on the follow-up shots...

View attachment 1372

View attachment 1373

Hope you enjoy these....

Tony C. :z04_cowboy:

 

[Steaphany]

Very nice

 

[akv]

Wow, all very cool shots. I have yet to capture a good image of the moon. But thanks for the pointers, all.