Moon & Copernicus Crater

[TCampbell]

I suppose this qualifies as "night" photography (technically it's astrophotography). I was just testing out the Canon 60Da last night. "Seeing" conditions weren't the greatest to go after faint-fuzzy targets, so I opted for an easier selection.

This is the moon with the Copernicus crater located in the center at the lunar terminator (the edge which separates day/night sides of the moon).


Copernicus Crater by Tim Campbell1, on Flickr

Canon 60Da, 1/60th sec exposure, ISO 100, prime focus (T-mount & T-adapter) mounted to a Meade 80mm f/6 ED Triplet Apochromatic Refractor (the telescope is f/6) -- and cropped in. (Not the Celestron C14 SCT that I mentioned when I first created this post.)

[480sparky]

With reducer/corrector?

[TCampbell]

No - actually this is cropped in. The RAW frame out of the camera had the diameter of the moon only about half as large as you see here -- so I just cropped it a bit to make it easier to see detail. I adjusted highlights down a bit and added some sharpening.

The color is straight out of the RAW image (no white balance, nor did I adjust it). Notice the slight brownish tint... that's the extra IR being collected. A normal camera filters that out and the moon would look more grayish. The 60Da (Canon's special edition of the 60D designed for astrophotography) allows considerably more IR light to pass -- making it much easier to do astrophotography imaging.

I just got this camera body last week and haven't had too many opportunities to play with it yet.

[480sparky]

Strange. When I 'shoot the moon', I have to use the corrector just to get the whole disc in view. Otherwise, I have to crop part of it out in-camera.

You may want to look into getting one, though..... you'll end up with an f/7 scope with it.

[TCampbell]

Ok... I'm REALLY EMBARRASSED. Here's the story (I guess I have to edit my post.)

I did actually take the FIRST images through the C14. Not much of the moon fits into the image. On TOP of the C14 is a Meade 80mm f/6 ED APO refractor that we use for wider field images (and on top of that is a Lunt solar scope). So we've got 3 telescopes mounted / piggy-backed on the same mount.

I moved the camera over to the Meade f/6 scope after using the C14 ... and forgot which images were taken with which scope. I knew I took the first images on the C14 and the last images on the Meade. I had to go back into Aperture and look at the order in which I took these... realized this was the 2nd to last image I took so it was, of course, actually taken on the Meade.

Sorry for the confusion. Clearly I'm getting old and losing my mind.

Regards,
Tim

[480sparky]

[bert]

Wonderful. Awesome. The detail and that wonderful shadow, the craters...

Ohh, the envy...

I don't have anything big enough to shoot the Moon with, so I really appreciate good shots of it.

Magnificent work, Tim, truly a beautiful picture of one of the most beautiful things

[John B.]

The color is straight out of the RAW image (no white balance, nor did I adjust it). Notice the slight brownish tint... that's the extra IR being collected. A normal camera filters that out and the moon would look more grayish.

Around midnight, last night, I went outside to lock my truck. I noticed how big and bright the moon looked so I grabbed my tripod and camera and shot a couple of frames. The grayness of the moon makes it look so drab so I tart mine up by giving it a nice blue tint. (I will post it sometime later.)

What I want to know is, when the earth is viewed from space, it looks blue. Why not the moon? I'm guessing it must be something to do with our oxygen molecules.