First CCD camera picture of Moon

[Gordon]

Hello All

I finally managed to tackle the Moon last night using a borrowed 2 megapixel digital camera held up to the eyepiece. Point and clicked several times until one or two pictures came out sharp enough. The technology of being able to instantly see the results and try again is certainly a wonderful thing. Will do some more over the next week while all the best features are spread along the terminator.

Tried Saturn the same way but the result was far less pleasing compared to the webcam.

[iceman]

Nice one Gordon! I started my imaging the same way :)

Is there a reason you didn't use the webcam to capture the moon?

The good thing about afocal shots with a digicam is being able to use a 25mm eyepiece and get the full disc in one shot, unlike the webcam which only captures a portion at a time.

I converted your image to greyscale and applied a few filters to try and enhance it a bit.. personal preference really I suppose.

Keep up the great work!

[ving]

nice one gordon... reminds me of my first shots. the moon afocally in an ebay 60mm! hehe.

keep em coming!

[Gordon]

Thank you Mike and Ving

I did not use the webcam purely out of laziness. All the setting up with the computer etc puts me off a little when I simply wanted to get a picture quickly.

I do intend to try the webcam again but now know I will need a better computer so as to ease my frustration of the mouse freezing all the time.

It is interesting that you have turned my picture to black and white given that this is typically the colour of the Moon in reality. More interesting is how film cameras and colour digital cameras interpret the Moon in a light brown even though it doesn't look this way visually. There appears to be more contrast in the B&W version.

Still experimenting and having fun at the same time.

[ving]

try and get a good snap of saturn with the same camera afocally. I have been trying and can only just get the cassini division.

still, not bad for a 1.5sec snapshot on a 2mp camera :)

[Gordon]

I did indeed try that on the same night as the Moon shot but it is so small that zooming in only made it jump around more resulting in badly blurred pictures. No doubt with a suitable camera mount this will not be such a problem.

[ving]

the easiest way is to probably barlow a 15-9mm... yes its very tricky trying to get the sucker centered. i'll have to upload the shot i took so i can show you once i get home maybe... try not to use the cameras zoom too much

[rumples riot]

Nice shot Gordon, way better than my first shot. Shows real promise. Keep em coming. I love to see other peoples work.