[Dennis]

Straddling the midnight hour of 23rd/24th April 2008, from Brisbane, the Moon slowly glided between the heavenly attractions of M4, NGC6144 and the brilliant star Antares. Due to the immense brightness range of these celestial objects, it was impossible to capture their splendour in a single photo. However, I was able to show what this thrilling cosmic spectacle might have looked like, by producing a photo mosaic from 4 panes covering the stellar background from the previous week, and a photo of the Moon taken just after 1:49am on the 24th April. The size of the original stellar background mosaic is 6048x4923 pixels.

Background star field details:
Vixen ED102S F9 refractor with Canon 40D DSLR camera at prime focus.
The 3 panes spanning M4 to NGC6144 were made up of 10 exposures of 30 secs at 800 ASA.
The Antares pane was 5 exposures of 30 secs at 800 ASA due to being interrupted by twilight, the result of a late start one morning!
Background photos captured over the period 17th to 21st April. Aligned and stacked in ImagesPlus. Processed and stitched together in CS3.

Moon details:
Takahashi Mewlon 180 at F9.6 using x0.8 Flattener/Reducer with Canon 40D DSLR camera.
A composite of 2 photos, exposure of 1/50 sec, 100 ASA on 24th April 2008.
Photos stitched together and processed in Photoshop CS3 with a colour saturation boost to reveal the subtle colours on the Moon. This processed Moon was then positioned against the stellar background using The Sky 6 Professional set for the 24th April 2008 at 1:50am AEST (GMT+10hrs).

So, if your eyes had a sufficiently large dynamic range, this is what you might have observed, if the clouds had cooperated that is! Yawn, off to bed now for some zzzzzds.

NOTE:
1st file is 1600 pixel at 177Kb
2nd file is 1280 pixel at 144 Kb

Cheers

Dennis Simmons