This image of the Full Moon (well, almost full – it was 99% illuminated) was taken on the 8th May 2009, using my Canon 20D attached to my ED80.

I took 136 photos @ ISO100, 1/125s exposure. All photos were stacked in Registax. The image was processed in Photoshop to reveal the different compositions of the geological formations on the Moon.

Saturated Colour Full Moon. Click for desktop resolution.

Continue reading for more information about the capture and processing of the image.

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I took this image of the 9-day old waxing gibbous Moon on Sunday night, 3rd May 2009.

The image has been colour-enhanced to emphasise the composition differences of geological formations. From APOD:

..blue hues reveal titanium rich areas while orange and purple colors show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron.

The Colour Saturated Moon. Click the image to see the large size.

Continue reading to find out how I captured and processed this image.

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On the 20th and 22nd March, I had two very busy mornings – capturing Jupiter (20th and 22nd), the ISS and the Moon all in the space of 2 hours on each of the days. I have finally finished processing the lunar images and am happy to be able to post these.

I used the 2x barlow to capture the ISS and used the Moon to test focus, so I captured a range of targets while waiting for the ISS to appear.  Included here are Copernicus, Sinus Iridum, Bullialdus, Aristarchus, Gassendi and Schickard.

The first image is of Copernicus using the 5x powermate. Captured at 60fps for 1 minute. The best 300 frames were stacked for this result.

Copernicus with the 5x powermate

The rest of the images are captured with the 2x barlow, again at 60fps. Next is Sinus Iridum.

Sinus Iridum

To see the remaining images and some processing notes, please read on.

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In the From the Vault series, I feature an older image which hasn’t been seen here before and I talk about the capture and processing and hopefully highlight why this image is special to me.

The feature image in From the Vault this week is the Total Lunar Eclipse that occurred on the 28th August, 2007. The total lunar eclipse was one of the most accessible astronomical events for a long time – you didn’t need any special equipment and you didn’t need to stay up late or get up very early. The eclipse started just after sunset and the deepest part of totality was at 8:37pm, a convenient time for families and friends to congregate and observe the eclipse. 

It was my first Total Lunar Eclipse, and while I knew it was going to be a special event, the scale leading up to it, and the awe I felt while viewing the blood red Moon during Totality really took me by surprise.

Total Lunar Eclipse Montage

The Australian media gave the eclipse a lot of attention and airtime, making it a very popular event across the country. IceInSpace had an enormous surge in traffic as people searched for information about the eclipse. It was probably one of the most photographed eclipses in recent times, as the proliferation in affordable digital cameras gave almost everyone the chance to record the moon’s parade into and out of the shadow of the Earth.

Please read on to see more images from the Total Lunar Eclipse, and also to read how and why this event was huge for me and for IceInSpace.

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For ages last night I sat in bed wondering where to go to photograph this marvellous sight… wondering if it would be cloudy, would it be clear, would the skies provide the same dramatic scenery as I was presented for the Smiley Face Conjunction, would I remember the spare batteries, my tripod, the remote switch, would the alarm wake me up or would I sleep through it?!

Luckily, everything came together for a beautiful morning of photography and I was able to capture some stunning images of the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars conjunction. 

Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars Conjunction at Dawn

The image above is my favourite from the session, and was taken with the Canon 20D and Sigma 17-70mm lens @ 33mm, f/5.6, 2.0s exposure @ ISO800.

Please continue reading below to see more photos of the conjunction gracing the lovely morning skies.

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Back in January 2008, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a DMK41AF02 from Astronomy Cameras. It’s a monochrome webcam with a 1/2″ CCD that can capture at 15fps in 1280×960 pixel resolution – just perfect for lunar astrophotography where a large field of view really matters.

The images below were captured on the 27th January 2008 in average seeing, but weren’t processed until now due to limitations in Registax 4. The large frame size produced by the DMK41AF02 meant that a 2 minute AVI was over 2 gigabytes in size (using the Y800 codec), and Registax 4 just couldn’t load those large files.

Luckily though, in recent months I’ve been on the Registax 5 beta-testing program (it’s due for release any week now!) and so I’ve been able to use Registax 5 to process these AVI’s, as it handles large file sizes without a problem.

It was worth the wait – the large field of view combined with a mosaic of several frames has allowed me to capture some larger than normal patches of the moon in high-resolution, when compared with the DMK21AU04 which has 640×480 pixel resolution.

Theophilus and Cyrillus - 2 frame mosaic. Click image for full-size version.

Please continue reading to see more images from the session and for more information and a review of the DMK41AF02 in practise.

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UPDATE: Photos of the Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars Conjunction from the 23rd February.

Conjunctions of the Moon and Planets can be quite special events, as we saw on December 1st 2008 when The Smiley Face Conjunction graced our skies. A conjunction is an alignment or grouping together of 2 or more celestial bodies (usually the moon and planets) in the sky, from our vantage point on Earth. The objects aren’t necessarily physically close to each other in space, but from where we see them, we call the grouping a conjunction.

A conjunction doesn’t have any particularly special meaning, but they can be interesting to observe because very close conjunctions are quite rare events. It can be very exciting to see two planets in the same field of view of your telescope! Not only that, but conjunctions, especially with the moon and/or bright planets are involved, are just a lovely spectacle to look at and photograph.

Smiley Face Conjunction at Sunset, December 1st 2008

Given that, there’s a few conjunctions coming up later in February and in late April that are worth getting up early to see and photograph:

• February 23rd: Conjunction with the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars (Photos here)
• February 25th: Conjunction with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars
• April 23rd: Conjunction with the Moon, Venus and Mars

Continue reading for more information including sky charts and tips for observing and photographing the conjunctions.

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In the From the Vault series, I feature an older image which hasn’t been seen here before and I talk about the capture and processing and hopefully highlight why this image is special to me.

The feature image in From the Vault this week is a high-resolution mosaic image of the Clavius crater on the Moon, as well as some other craters captured on the same night. It was the day before New Years Eve in 2007, the weather was hot and the seeing was variable. Fortunately it steadied for a period of about 5 minutes, long enough for me to capture enough data to compile this 4-frame mosaic of Clavius.

It’s my highest-resolution and best image of Clavius, or any crater i’ve imaged so far. The lighting was perfect, giving just enough contrast to help the small craterlets and rilles stand out while still fully illuminating all the features. The resolution is about 200 metres per pixel at the focal length I was working at (approx 10.5 metres).

Click the image to see the full size and remember to expand the image if your browser resizes it.

High Resolution Clavius (click image for full size)

Continue reading to learn more about the capture and processing of this image, as well as to see some other crater images captured on the same night.

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Make sure you head outside over the next week and look to the West after sunset – you’ll see the brilliant Venus and Jupiter closing in on each other until they are at their closest on the evening of the 1st December, 2008.

UPDATE 2nd December: Pictures of the Smiley Face Conjunction

What makes this conjunction even more special, is that the pairing is also joined by the thin crescent Moon – giving us our very own smiley face in the sky! Check the attachment below to see what I mean.

Smiley Face Conjunction, 1st December 2008. Screenshot generated from Starry Night Pro.

The view above is what you’ll see from mid-latitudes in Australia at around 8pm AEDST on the 1st December. Your view might be slightly different depending on where in Australia you live, and it might even be upside down if you live elsewhere on Earth.

Venus and Jupiter will be a close 2° apart, and the Moon will be about 3.5° away from both of the bright planets.

But don’t wait until the 1st December, just in-case it’s cloudy on that day! The couple of days before and after the 1st December still show a lovely conjunction of the planets but the Moon will be further away. The video below shows an animation of the motion from a few days before to a few days after the 1st December.

I just love conjunctions like this and love photographing them. Now I need to find a nice spot to set up and take some photos. Here’s hoping for clear skies!

This image was taken this morning at approx 4:45am local time on the 24th September 2008, with a mag -1 ISS pass flying by at an altitude of approx 43deg.

I put the camera direct on the EQ mount (plonked down and not aligned) and set it to track so that I wouldn’t get the usual short trailing stars with the longish exposures.

2 exposures of 60s each, ISO100, f/4.5 were the settings used on my Canon 350D and Sigma 17-70mm lens @ 17mm. The two exposures were combined with Lighten blending, and a very minor curves and levels adjustment.

I had the moon to set the auto-focus on (and then lock it to manual) which was handy, too.

licence:

Moon, Orion and the ISS

Thanks for looking.