Moon & Copernicus Crater
This is a discussion on Moon & Copernicus Crater within the Night Photography forums, part of the PHOTO GALLERIES category; 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 ...
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Post By TCampbell
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Post By 480sparky
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Moon & Copernicus Crater
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.)
Last edited by TCampbell; 05-30-2012 at 11:09 PM.
Tim Campbell
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05-30-2012 10:19 PM
Last edited by 480sparky; 05-30-2012 at 10:26 PM.
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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.
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.
Last edited by 480sparky; 05-30-2012 at 10:51 PM.
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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
Sick of all the spam and advertising. I'm done here.
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

Originally Posted by
TCampbell
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.