Moon, Venus and Mars

[middy]

Was sorting out the picture directory on the computer last night and came across these images hidden in the dark recesses of my hard drive.

These were taken before the word 'astrophotography' had even entered my vocabulary with a camera I borrowed from work (Nikon Coolpix 990/995).

The wide shot shows the moon passing Venus with Mars right of centre at the top. The second shot is a close up of the Moon and Venus at what was probably full digital zoom.

Date: 23rd April 2004
Exposure: 1 sec @ ISO400
Method: camera on tripod

[davidpretorius]

they are very nice middy.

it is funny, the jupiters we are producing with all the extra processing beats what you can see thru the eyepiece, but i am yet to see a widefield image that encompasses better than what the naked eye can see re earth shine on the moon and a bright venus etc with say the light blue / black of sunset.

I spose the camera takes a snapshot, the brain merges different contrast / colour and brings out the best of each??

[fringe_dweller]

we would need 3D capabilities to be able to do that david :P
re joop views - you obviously havent owned a large aperture f7 or greater planetary scope (and using quality 1.25" ep's) before, i have seen views as good last time joop was south and large/bright in the mid 90's. not very often mind you - certainly with saturn and mars i have seen views as good as any webcam image
a mate and I were discussing this recently and we dont think the webcammers have got the colours perfect yet - but detail yes
and you guys have got to beat hubble yet too :)

Nice job Middy - cheers for posting :-))) keep em coming

[fringe_dweller]

and another thing - be a while before you webcammers achieve the image size a widefield can - I have yet to see a printed version of one of these webcam images that is equal to their low res web version

[iceman]

For sure Kearn.. most webcams are only 640x480, so even printing them on a small 6x4" photo doesn't look that great.

There are 1280x1024 webcams around now, and in the next few years as computers are faster and webcams at this resolution are more common, at least then a 6x4" print will look ok.

[davidpretorius]

I had a quick look thru a few taks at snake valley, but seeing wasn't great, but can't wait to eyeball some more.

I mean to correct this later in the year and have a look thru a tak and an 18" or bigger obsession.

I spose the point i am trying to make is that we can get so entrenched in imaging both dso's and planets and get great results, but the imaging of some objects may never beat the old naked eye and brain working in tandem