Lunar Vistas October 2023

[Startrek]

Its been 3 years since I captured any planetary images , so decided to spend a few nights capturing some Lunar vistas with my basic entry level set up (8” Newt and DSLR ) The Moon was ideally positioned up at 70 degrees early in the evening with a waxing phase around 50% to 58% over 2 clear nights.
I captured quite a few different images including various wide field and close in Lunar terrain shots. The Astrobin image of the Apennine Mountain region was captured using the following gear and software -

Waxing Moon 50% to 58%
Seeing was average
Clear Skies Bortle 8 City Suburban
8" f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon Fibre Newt
Canon 600D DSLR , ISO 800 , 1/1250 exposure , 1500 avi frames ( Best 75% )
Televue 2 x Powermate with 2" x 35mm extension adapter
Tracking with EQMOD and Stellarium ( Lunar Rate )
Capture Software BYEOS Planetary Mode ( 5 x Zoom to achieve 1:1 pixel ratio )
Stacking Software Autostakkert 3
Processing Software Registax 6

I had to learn everything over again its been so long , but pleased with the result out of a DSLR

Astrobin Link below ………

https://www.astrobin.com/oeerwq/

Comments Welcome
Thanks for Looking
Martin

[Dennis]

Great series Martin, I love looking at these lunar close ups.:)

Dennis

[Dave882]

Fantastic set Martin and a great variety of lunar captures. Really tidy work. The image of the Montes Apenninus is stunning, but I really like the wider view ones too.

Great to see you jumping back into some planetary imaging. Variety is the spice of life, or something like that :P

[Startrek]

Thanks Dennis,
After 3 years it’s still enjoyable to image out closest neighbour in the cosmos
I had more images but these were the pick of the crop
Cheers
Martin

[Startrek]

Thanks Dave,
I did promise to get back into it at some stage.
I was surprised how well they processed out , I didn’t need that much wavelet sharpening and colour was as you see it , quite natural I think. Just a tweak on the gamma and contrast and that’s it.
Took me a while to learn the software again but it was fun once I got the hang of it. So much less time consuming than DSO imaging and you can gather so much data in a short time to sift through.
A lot of fun after 3 years
Thanks for your kind comments
Cheers
Martin

[flintzis]

Great images, love the detail in them, especially the close-ups!

[Startrek]

Thanks Phivos,
It was great to get back into some planetary imaging after 3 years ( I normally spend all my time on DSO imaging )
Nice to see posts from sunny Cyprus
Clear Skies
Martin

[Leo.G]

Stunning images Martin!

[Startrek]

Thanks Leo
Appreciate the kind comment
It was a lot of fun over those 2 nights using the old DSLR again after so many years gathering dust in the cupboard. Certainly a lot less capture and processing time than long exposure DSO imaging

Cheers
Martin

[bkm2304]

Great shots. You can never get enough moonage!
Richard

[Startrek]

Thanks Richard,
Like I mentioned I haven’t image the moon or planets for over 3 years
I’m only a planetary dabbler but it’s amazing what you can capture with a humble DSLR and smallish Newt

Cheers
Martin