Well it's been difficult to do any kind of atro as of late with this weather but it was around midnight on Tuesday when I could see the clouds thinning out and thought I'd have a crack at some lunar imaging. I think in my excitement I underestimated how much cloud was still around so it was a hard slog trying to get stable captures...not the easiest conditions to work with but glad I was able to walk away with some happy snaps all the same!
Plato (probably the best of an ordinary bunch)
Doppelmayer & Vitello (which looked like a stunning snowcapped peak through the eyepiece but failed to impress with the capture)
Copernicus
Goldschmidt, Anaxagoras & the northern landscape
The usual setup...
c14 (non edge) @f11 with asi178mm (IR685 filter)
best 5% of 15,000 frames
3ms captures, variable gain to suit the histogram
AS!4, Registax6, PI for some much needed histogram tweaks!
As always Dave very nice!
I love the last image, the detailed outlines of the craters where dark meets light always amazes me. you can get perspective on how big they are.
We've had the crappiest, overcast weather every night yet around 3-4AM when I'm up for one of my multiple night dunny trips I've seen the most beautiful clear skies through the dunny window that's had me wishing I'd stayed up and at least set the Astro-Trac up.
My Nikon D810 went off to the repair centre today and it would be favoured over my Player One Neptune so I don't need a laptop out. But I prefer setting up in daylight. We're expecting 8C overnight tonight, unusual November temperatures.
Thanks Steve, Pierre, Leo- appreciate your comments guys!
Honestly I was pretty happy to walk away with anything given the recent conditions. Leo I know what you mean- it cleared up again last night after a late storm rolled through but I just didn’t have it in me to do a session even though the sky looked magnificent. I remind myself there’s always next month!
I agree with Pierre, it does look like you're about to land! Clean and crisp work, and Copernicus is an old favourite.
Although if you can explain how you found a gap in the doona-like cloud cover of late...
Thanks Warren- I like those low-angle views too it makes you feel like you’re hovering above! I wouldn’t really call it a ‘gap’ lol but thinned out enough to have a go. Kinda stuck to some old favourites given the conditions. I was a little disappointed by my efforts on Copernicus - there should be some small craterlets on the floor but were not resolved given the conditions. Having said that, I think that’s the best shot of Plato I’ve gotten to date…so go figure…
Dave,
Excellent lunar vistas considering conditions
You can’t beat a C14 for planetary work , the gold standard !!
I think your Plato and Copernicus images are superb , best I’ve seen in a while
To think Copernicus is around 95km in diameter and you’ve resolved some incredible detail around the rim and central peaks
Colour , contrast and brightness on all images top notch
A few questions…
How do you find AS4 ? I’m still using AS3 even though I’m a part time planetary imager.
How are the mozzies around your area , lately they’ve been terrible. Probably something do with sewage treatment ponds in south west Sydney
Thanks Martin! As I mentioned to Warren, I was a little disappointed by how Copernicus turned out compared to some previous efforts... https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...e.php?a=310043
but I do still remember that specific night a year ago was some truely exceptional conditions.
AS!4 is pretty much the same as 3, except sooooo much faster. Especially for me, I like to take very large lunar AVIs (around 20-40GB per capture) so that I can select only the best frames and don't even need to touch the denoise. It gets through the data quite quickly.
The mozzies are swarming around here - hundreds and hundreds buzzing around me while I try to observe. I needed the aeroguard to try and keep them at bay but am fortunate they don't seem to affect me too much. My son on the other hand blows up in huge welts with them and got hit badly on Monday only just now back to normal poor guy.
What storage medium do you use Dave?
Last time I came in with my sons old HP laptop after doing some imaging with the Player One Neptune my son said I'd taken 600 plus Gb of images. I think it was the moon, or Orion, I don't remember it's been a while since I've been well enough to get out.
Mozzies don't touch me, or rarely, my son is the same as your son, golf ball sized welts instantly. To stop the itch near enough to immediately, run the infected part under the hottest water you can stand (without getting burnt of course), instant relief. Works for flea bites too, I spent months at a friends place near Bondi some years back and the fleas bred in the sand under the house.
Cheers Richard - yes there's a few little 'tuning forks' you can use. Through the eyepiece I often attempt to spot some of the smaller rilles such as the rille in Vallis Alpes (if the illumination is right) and if i can make that out I know it's a very good night. Copernicus, and Gassendi is another benchmark for me when it comes to imaging.
Leo - thanks for that tip re. the mozzies - i will give that a try next time. I use the onboard hdd on my MacBook for the captures using ASICAP which i have found to provide the best speeds of the available software that I have used. I have about 200gb free so usually allows for a several captures. If space is tight, I use a fast USB thumb drive, which I have found to deliver excellent transfer speeds and I can even capture direct to the drive with minimal dropped frames. I also do my processing off that USB as I need to transfer the files to my wifes work PC laptop as none of the programs operate on mac. It takes about 3-5min to transfer about 50gb of data and less than 30min to analyse & process it all in AS!4. My old surface pro3 that I used to use would take upwards of 12hrs to process one image!!
