Observing session Saturday December 22nd, 2007

[Dave Lillis]

Hi All,
We meeting up on the the hill tonight at 8pm in Boher, we're not meeting at the car park anymore, no need to be honest, just go up to the hill directly, if you need assistance, call me on 087-6137293
MAKE SURE YOU CLOSE THE GATE BEHIND YOU.

[Dave Lillis]

Well,
Despite the very high full moon we had a good night up on the hill, attended by myself and Frank.
We took images of the Moon and Mars, the moonglow was too bright to look at much else. It was absolutely freezing up there and when the wind blew it felt like -5.
The GOTO system on the 20" obsession worked perfectly, nailing all its targets (incase you don't know what I'm talking about, a have a look at this
http://www.irishastronomy.org/boards/vi ... sc&start=0)

Anyway, here are some pics of the night.

This moon image is a single frame highly cropped with the canon 300D, I tried prime focus but was unable to reach focus as expected so I had to do eyepiece projection using the canons original lens and a 26mm T5 nagler.
This section of the moon was just breath taking through the binoviewers


Look closely at the left side of the image, the moon hardly has any (what you might call) flat surfaces in that area it so pulverised with craters and mountains.
The bmp image was a little sharper and alot bigger, you really got the feeling that the craters center and on the left were like bowls, they were so 3D. I've left this one a little off white, if I apply "correct" white balance it gets a little washed out and the craters loose their depth.



The white areas at the bottom of the Mars previewer image (Hellas) is alot whiter then the real thing, but there is some compatible details in there.
The area called "chaos" (the brighter small area on the top left almost looks like an imaging artifact. Syrtis Major and Mare teranium are clearly visible. This MArs image is a joint effort by myself and Frank, he controlled the laptop while I focused the image and kept it in the FOV against variable gusts. This one if processed by myself.


This is a single frame of the Copernicus-Aristarchus region, the right handside of the frame is slightly out of focus, unavoidable really given eyepiece projection which is why i try to avoid doing it this way if possible.

Aristarchus was amazing at higher powers, it was like looking into a ridged cereal bowl that had been 1/4 filled, I've never seen that kind of detail.

Here is a shot of Tycho, the top pic is a closeup of the top of this pic.

I think this one is a little too stark but again if I apply "natural" likeness it gets a little washed out, the detail is still there at the expense of a natural representation.

and here is one rather featureless quadrant of the moon.



We also had a look at the Orion nebula but was not great due to the moon glow, I cant wait to see this on a moonless night.

[Conn Buckley]

Great work Dave/Frank -- well done. Conditions on that night were particularly trying. There is so much exciting work ahead when you get fully sorted and of course the right conditions. I look forward to seeing your results.