Lunar Images with the
Orion 10" f/3.9 Newtonian Astrograph
April 18, 2016
Uploaded 4/23/16

 As
            the moon approached full on this evening, the sky was very clear,
            but a cold front was moving out and the seeing was just terrible
            at around 1.5 / 5. I had to throw out half the images because
            of poor clarity, however the images here show promising detail
            anyway. In all cases, the close ups were with the 10 inch and
            5x Powermate Barlow and the use of the Orion IR pass filter was
            essential in getting the best seeing for this shaky night.

South is up in this image, more info below.

Click on 1290 size for a full screen image
 

            


            
Here is the appearance of the moons right side
on the terminator for this shooting session.  Two prime
focus images were combined for this panorama

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Plato at upper left and the
long strip like Mare Frigoris
is the sea in the center.  The large
shallow basin to the right is Herschel.

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The huge bay at center is Sinus
Iridum, and the ring of mountains
flanking is periphery is the
Jura Mountains.

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We continue our trek southward,
to the isolated mesas south of the crater
Gruithuisen.  The lighting on these is
perfect here.

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Archimedes is the very bright crater
above center, and to its right is the 
Schroters Valley.  Note the half buried
crater rim sticking out of the massive lava
field in the center.

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More half buried craters in this
area as we continue South.  Flamsteed
is the prominent small crater just below
center.

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Gassendi is on the left and contains
many internal rilles and cracks in the 
moons crust.

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This last image is near the moons 
south pole and is dominated by the huge
crater - or more accurately - Ringed
basin, Clavius.

1290 x 960


Processing:
            50/1200 best frames, alignment in Autostakkert, Levels and Contrast
            Masking In Photoshop CS2,
Instrument:  Orion (GSO) 10" f/3.9 with 5x Barlow
Platform:  Astrophysics AP1200
CCD Camera:  Image Source DMK 51
Filter:  Orion IR Pass
Exposure:  1/30 sec  12fps
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing 3/5, Transparency 7/10
Outside Temperature:  35F