Long Lunar Shadows

[Craig Zerbe]

The Terminus is always the most interesting to photograph. This image highlights the elevation of the central prominences of Alphonsus. At the far left in the middle you can see the row of small craters - Davy Crater Chain - where a comet had broken apart and hit the surface in rapid succession.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Wow that some detail.

 

[JimFox]

Oh wow Craig! This is awesome!!! This level of detail really puts the moon on the same level as the DSO photography of Nebulas and such.

I knew there were craters on the moon, but this really kind of makes it hit home as to just how many there are.

 

[AlanLichty]

Neat details - you have a very interesting archive.

 

[Leslie Hunter]

Great detail!

 

[Mike Lewis]

Craig,

That's a very nice result - love the detail, you have battled through the 'soup' of the atmosphere very well on this one. Is this part of a stacked video that you processed the best frames from, or is this a single capture? What OTA/Lens and camera combo did you use?

ML

P.S. - forgot to mention, I always greatly enjoy when someone adds some details about what was shot. In this case, that info about the comet impact is very cool - I did not know about that. A very interesting region, captured just when the contrast was at its peak.

ML

 

[Colorado CJ]

Nice! What camera/scope are you using?

 

[Craig Zerbe]

Nice! What camera/scope are you using?

This was using an Astrovid 2000 B&W video camera (circa 2000). I recorded onto a digital Sony camcorder and then used software to import to the computer later on. The telescope was a Celestron 11" SCT on a Losmandy G11 Equatorial mount. While the camera is way out dated, I think Celestron still sells the same scope today. Sky & Telescope and Astronomy published a fair number of my images back in the day.... I think it was around $25-50 an image - and bragging rights.... To create larger images, I would have mosaic 4 - 20 image sets together.