Luna: Rilles Galore! - 31/08/2006

[iceman]

Hi all.

Here's a 2-image mosaic showing a very interesting part of the moon, full of rilles. It's an area that i'd not captured before, but one that i'll definitely go back to in the future.

The deep looking rille on the lower right of the image is Rima Hyginus, while the network of rilles above is Rimae Triesnecker (around the shadow filled Triesnecker crater). The wide fault around the centre of the image is Rima Ariadaeus, and the faint one at lower left is Rimae Sosigenes. The 2 larger craters at the top centre are Agrippa (lower one) and Godin.

The image was captured on Saturday night (31st August), with the 10" dob on EQ platform, 2x barlow, DMK21AF04 and Green filter.

It's a 2-image mosaic, each avi consisting of approx 1200 frames. Registax 4beta was used to process each avi, with 10 and 11 alignment points respectively (21 points in total). 70 frames from each alignment point were stacked to make the final result. The mosaic was assembled in photoshop, levels adjusted, and the image was then taken to AstraImage for LR deconvolution. Finally, back to photoshop for levels adjustment and high-pass layer filtering.

The attached image is reduced to 800px wide - please see the full version (slightly higher resolution, less compression) by clicking here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/images/images/moon/20060831-rimahyginus-full.jpg). (260k jpeg)

Thanks for looking, comments welcome.

[RB]

Oh my gosh Mike. :eyepop:

It looks like the moon has a crack in it!
Awesome result.
Amazing really.
:clap:

[Dennis]

Hi Mike

An excellent mosaic of quite a varied array of rilles. Great to see you are getting to grips with R4 too.

Cheers

Dennis

[davidpretorius]

that is really good mike.

congrats!

[Omaroo]

Excellent Mike. This is why I bought into astronomy, and I'm looking at starting my astrophotographic life by the end of this week. Well done :)

[seeker372011]

another sensational lunar image Mike.

its a wonderful target so full of interesting detail, so every picture is great to see

[gaa_ian]

I can just see the book now, "Mike's Lunar images" the definitive guide to exploring the moon !
Excellent shot Mike, I used to take the moon for granted.
Having a good set of lunar charts helps heaps, in learing to appreciate our Lunar cousin.

[iceman]

Thanks for the nice comments guys.

Ian, I have a new appreciation for lunar imaging after my recent sessions with ol' luna. There's some fascinating features to see, and lunar imaging can be as equally challenging (if not more so) than planetary imaging.

I'm really enjoying imaging the moon lately. It is though, another case of wishing for an EQ mount with a hand controller to easily centre the object of interest. It is really difficult with my setup, given backlash and drifting to a) centre the object you want, and b) keep it in the centre. I really do want to be able to press a button to "move it a bit to the left", etc.

ah well, I use what i've got.

[Lester]

Very nice Mike.

Hard to emagine that you could improve on that= so sharp.

[Robert_T]

Truly excellent and inspiring - I want to do this! You Dob guys amaze me. How you manage when I struggle with an eq. Well done Mike:thumbsup:

[davidpretorius]

dobs are the best
celestrons are better than meades
pentax craps all over naglers
"david" is the best first name you can get
30mm ultra wides are way better than a 31m nagler

signed asimov!

disclaimer: mike made me do it!