View allAll Photos Tagged autostakkert
The Moon. This shot was taken on the night of 7-1-20. I don't normally do Moon or planet imaging, but I was tweaking part of my rig and the Moon as there ... so why not? I shot a 200 frame high res video sequence using my ZWO ASI294MC-Pro camera and SharpCap Pro software. When you watch the video you have see the image of the Moon wavering around as the atmosphere was distorting it. The video was analyzed and the sharpest 66 frames were stacked using Autostakkert 3 software. I then used Registax software to do Wavelet sharpening of the image. Finally, Photoshop was used to finish things up. It was interesting to try out a different form of capture and image processing.....
one day shy of a full moon, x150 photos stacked with AutoStakkert!3, wavelet sharpened with Registax6 and post processed with DxO PhotoLab4
Canon EOS R5
Canon EF600mm f/4 III
(1/800, f/5.6, ISO100)
One of the more prominent impact craters on the Moon, Copernicus is a younger feature. It is estimated to be from an impact about one billion years ago. The crater is 93 km in diameter and reaches depths of 3.7 km. The Sun is shining on it low in the east during this imaging session.
Taken during my Astronomy Lab on 2021-09-16
ZWO ASI120MM camera with a red Optolong filter on a Celestron Edge HD 925
Best 250 of 600 frames; stacked in AutoStakkert
Processing in PixInsight and Photoshop
Transit of the moon Ganymede (largest moon in the Solar System) over Jupiter, with a projection of its shadow on the planet. In the images, the moon Ganymede is the spherical (grey hued) object seen in the vicinity of the Great Red Spot. Ganymede's shadow projection appears as a dark circle near the center of Jupiter.
"Fifth in line from the Sun, Jupiter is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system – more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Jupiter's familiar stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years".
Source: NASA solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/ (To view the article, click on "More" at the bottom of the site)
Sky-Watcher 203mm F/5 EQ5 Reflector Telescope with Onstep and ZWO EAF Electronic Focuser, ASI 290MC, Barlow Tele Vue 3x, Svbony UV/IR Cut Filter. FireCapture, AutoStakkert, RegiStax, AstroSurface, WinJUPOS, Camera Raw and Fitswork.
@LopesCosmos
"Posidonius"
Posidonius is located on the north-eastern edge of Mare Serenitatis, to the south of Lacus Somniorum and ominously named Lacus Mortis, which was featured in an image I posted two days ago. Posidonius is 95 km wide and 2.3 km deep. It is an impressive crater, with many distinctive features that make it fun to examine through a telescope. Here it is seen in "afternoon" lighting, with the sunlight coming in at a moderate angle from the west.
Posidonius is a textbook example of a "floor-fractured crater". Close examination will immediately reveal the reason for this designation: the floor of the crater is crisscrossed by numerous large cracks. This kind of crater is most often found in the regions of the moon near lunar mare. The mechanism of their formation involves several stages. Sometime after the impact event that gouged out the crater, lava upwelled from the lunar interior and formed a magma chamber beneath the crater. Pressure within the magma chamber then lifted the entire floor of the crater, creating a bulge. Eventually the lava found its way to the surface through cracks in the crater floor and covered it to considerable depth. As the lava cooled, it contracted, cracked, and slumped back downward into voids in the magma chamber. The cracks within the crater are known collectively as Rimae Posidonius.
Posidonius lacks a notable central peak. Instead, numerous hills are seen. One relatively unique feature is the "doubling" of the eastern rim. It appears that there might be a second crater rim, or perhaps part of the original eastern rim broke away and slumped toward the center of the crater . Posidonius also features a prominent (11 km diameter) secondary crater within it called Posidonius A.
The area to the southeast of Posidonius is quite rugged and mountainous. This is a portion of the Montes Taurus. Here too are prominent fissures. The most prominent lies to the east of Posidonius. This is Rima G.Bond. The area is riddled with a multitude of small craterlets and many old, worn craters.
In contrast, the area to the west of Posidonius seems remarkably featureless and smooth. This is Mare Serenitatis, the "Sea of Serenity". Serene indeed. A few small craters pock the surface, and long, low ridges meander across its expanse. Whatever history of intense meteor bombardment this area has received over the eons, most evidence of it was covered up by the vast lava flows that created this mare. In fact, this entire sea was created by an enormous collision of the Moon and an asteroid, which created the Serenitatis Impact Basin, one of several such basins seen on the Moon. "Serene"? Maybe not so much.
Celestron EdgeHD 8 telescope, f/10, 2032 mm focal length
ZWO ASI290MM Camera
Celestron Advanced VX Mount
Stack of the best 50% of 8880 video frames, captured with Firecapture software
Pre-Processing with PIPP
Stacking with AutoStakkert!3
Wavelets processing with Registax 6
Post-processing with Photoshop CS 2019
Waxing gibbous Moon phase at 89,3%. August 2020
Processed with PIPP and stacked with AutoStakkert. It has finally been finished off with Adobe Photoshop CC.
Luna en cuarto creciente al 89,3%. Agosto 2020
Procesada con PIPP y apilada con AutoStakkert. Finalmente se ha rematado con Adobe Photoshop CC.
SONY A7III with 2X TELECONVERTER (SEL20TC) + Sony FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS (SEL200600G)
©2020 All rights reserved. MSB.photography
Thank all for your visit and awards.
#Luna del miércoles 10/7 Creciente Cóncava 23%.
Cada vez más conforme con la montura iExos 100 v2 de Explorer Scientific, que demostró su sencillez para la puesta en estación y su alineación a la polar.
Fue la tarde/noche más fría pero la noche se presentó ideal porque había poca turbulencia atmosférica y logramos capturas de 7000 imágenes para luego hacer el apilado.
Espero les guste el resultado.
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Config: Montura iExos 100 v2 /
Telescopio SkyMax 102mm (1300mm) f12 /
Cámara planetaria Player One Neptune-C /
Control y captura con NINA para la Montura /
Seguimiento estelar con Cartes Du Ciel /
Guiado con PHD 2 sobre la misma Cámara /
Apilado con AutoStakkert 4 y Siril /
Procesado con Astrosurface v2 /
Mosaico con PHS CC y Retoque con AstroPanel X Pro 2024 /
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#GLSfotografia #GLSpro @gustavosalgadocontenidos #skywatcher #iamskywatcher #explorescientific #playeroneastronomy #playeroneneptune #explorerscientific #iexos100pmceight #monturaiexos100 #autostakkert4 #astrosurface @photoshop #astropanelit #luna #moon #moonobsession #moonhdr #moonlovers #moonlight #welcometomoon #sanluis #sanluisargentina #photoastronomy #moonoftheday #argentina #lunahdr #astrofoto💫
Happy to finally have first light with new ASI120MC-S camera. Clouds finally were non-existent after about 6 weeks. Seeing was average. This was from a second capture during observation.
Processed with Autostakkert 2.5.1.7, Registax 6.
FireCapture v2.4 Settings
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Camera=ZWO ASI120MC-S
Telescope=Celestron CPC800 XLT - 2" Star Diagonal XLT
Shorty 2X Barlow
ZWO ASI178MC
Meade LX850 (12" f/8)
Losmandy G11
3000 frames captured in FireCapture
Best 50% stacked in AutoStakkert!
Intial wavelet sharpening and noise reduction in RegiStax
Final sharpening noise reduction in PhotoShop
Saturn, taken at 3:15 am this morning from the summit of Haleakala. Conditions were good but there was still a fair amount of star twinkle.
Shot three two-minute 12-bit movies using a monochrome ASI120MM camera through red, green and blue filters on an 11” Celestron Edge HD telescope. Stacked the 30% best frames using AutoStakkert! Wavelet sharpening using Registax. Increased size using Photoshop. De-rotated and color channels blended using WinJUPOS.
There are several groups of sunspots visible in this picture. They are cataloged with letters AR (Active Region) followed by a number. If a sunspot should make it all the way around during the Sun's 26 day cycle for one rotation, the sunspot number will change.
Looking from left to center and down: AR2941, AR2940, AR2930
More difficult to see at the very far right edge just north of center is AR2936 and AR2938
Telescope: Astro Physics 5" f8 refractor
Filters: Zeiss White Light Solar Filter, B+W 48E 106 64X, B+W 48 102 ND 0.6 - 2 BL 4x MRC
Focal Reducer: 0.5
Camera: ZWO I178MM
20 stack
Software: AutoStakkert, Lightroom Classic, PhotoShop
Location: Elkridge, Maryland USA
Optics : TEC 140 APO (980 mm F 7.0)
Filter : Baader Planetarium D-ERF 160 mm
Filter H alfa : Daystar Quark Cromosphere
Mount : Ioptron CEM70G & Ioptron TriPier;
Camera : ZWO ASI 174 MM;
Focal lenght : 4116 mm.
Software : FireCapture, AutoStakkert3, Adobe Photoshop
Sun Active region : NOAA 12975 (center), NOAA 12976 (left)
Casalecchio di Reno - Italia
44° 29’ 29” N
11° 14’ 58” E
Black and white image processed with Photoshop starting from the raw image obtained with the Autostakkert software from the movie (.ser file, 16 bit) taken with ZWO ASI 174 MM camera and with FireCapture software
The following Photoshop tools were used in sequence:
1) Duplication of the background
2) Applications of the "High Pass" filter, with radius = 3.0 mm
3) Application of the "Blending Method = Overlay" to the layer with 65% fill
4) Unification of the two levels
5) Creation and adjustment of a new "Brightness / Contrast" level
6) Creating and adjusting a new "Tonal Values" layer
7) Creating and adjusting a new "Curve" layer
8) Application of an Advanced Filter
9) Application of the Photoshop Plug-in "APF-R"
10) Final application of the "Camera Raw Filter - Sharpness".
This was another tough imaging session, with the planets playing hide and seek with endless bands of cloud, rain showers and a biting wind. Thankfully we had some brief gaps to get more photos of this awesome event!
Taken by Mary and Mark McIntyre from Oxfordshire, UK with a William Optics 70mm refractor and ASI120MC on a Star Adventurer Mini. We shot as many 1,000 frame videos as we could during the gaps. The videos used to create this image were taken at 17:36 and 17:45.
All the processing on this was done by me, Mark has processed them himself as well and is posting on his own Flickr page too.
The videos were stacked using Autostakkert! 3; the first one was 50% of 1,000 frames, the second was 65% of 1,000 frames. The stacked images were then processed using Lightroom. I did a parallel process on the 17:36 video, one to brighten Saturn and the other to turn the brightness down on Jupiter to preserve the detail. The video at 17:45 had a higher exposure setting to bring out the Galilean Moons. This final image is a blend of those three different exposures to create an image with a larger dynamic range.
Given the weather forecast for tomorrow when they're even closer, I'm so pleased we were able to capture this today. This is not a big telescope so it's mind blowing that we were able to pick up so much!
Taken with a Skywatcher ED80 and a Canon 600D. 4 image stack in Autostakkert. Having colour problems when using PIPP to convert RAW images to tiffs. No issues at all when using PIPP to convert jpg's. These colour artifacts only appear during wavelet sharpening after stacking, as a result the above image is only a 4 image stack but still some red artifacts, any more than 4 I get green artifacts. JPG's are so much more reliable and faster to process and are just as detailed. Reverting back to jpg for now. NOTE :--- Later on tried converting all the RAW images to 16bit tiffs before processing with PIPP to center and crop and the colour issue disappeared but the resulting image was no better than taking jpg's straight from the camera in the first place and much less processing time too :-)
Date of observation/acquisition: 2019-05-22 20:28 UT
Camera/Telescope: ASI290MM + red filter, 12" f/8 GSO RC
A time-accurate composite image from 2 consecutive 30-second video captures required to create this image, over the course of approximately 1 minute. A separate acquisition for Saturn's brightness for the moon's brightness is required, as their apparent exposure requirements are very different. While it CAN be captured a single acquisition, rather, by adjusting the gamma level of the imaging camera (boosting it...), a better quality image can often be obtained by properly exposing for each target.
Post-processed using Autostakkert!3, PixInsight, and combined in Photoshop. After stacking and processing was done, the moon and Saturn were then recombined into one final image.
Using a monochrome camera, it takes time to capture different exposures. As time elapses, in the apparent close quarters where two objects are moving independently in space, they must be treated separately and recombined in post, requiring a composite image.
We all hate composite images. But, when they are created with transparency and ethics, that’s what we as astrophotographers need to do. We must remain ethical and accurate at all times.
High-resolution imagery of lunar details around five prominent craters in the Southern Highlands region.
What I want an observer to see in this image is the multitude of tiny craterlets and other small features scattered throughout the image. I have not yet measured the smallest of them, but it is likely that they range down in size to less than 2 km diameter.
I have never achieved this kind of detail in my imaging before. I am trying to find ways to best display these features without overprocessing the data. Anyone with advice, please comment or send a flickrmail.
Celestron EdgeHD 8 telescope, f/10, 2032 mm focal length
ZWO ASI290MM Camera
Celestron Advanced VX Mount
Stack of the best 15% of 1717 video frames, captured with Firecapture software
Pre-Processing with PIPP
Stacking with AutoStakkert!3
Wavelets processing with Registax 6
Post-processing with Photoshop CS 2019
Image cropped and rotated.
Very active and feature-rich Sun @07:52am MSK, 13.05.2015.
TIS DMK23U via 2x Barlow lens on Coronado PST.
Mosaic of 9 panels, 18% of 800 frames per panel.
Deconvolution, wavelets and hi-pass filtering.
As observed from Washington DC on 11/4/2025 at about 9:00 pm ET, a full Beaver Supermoon image was obtained by stacking 10 minutes of AVI (i.e. RAW) video. The video was taken with a Seestar S50 telescope. Once the video was captured the telescope played no further role in the processing as set forth below.
The stacking of the RAW AVI frames was done with AutoStakkert! 4.0.11 (hereafter AS). The AS workflow is: (1) Open and go to Image stabilization and Quality estimator where various options are chosen; (2) Analyse and go to Reference frame, Stack options and Super resolution where appropriate options are chosen; (3) Stack.
For Image stabilization, the parameters used were Surface, Improved tracking and Crop. For Quality estimator, Automatic was selected. For Reference frame, Double stack reference was used. After initiating Analyse the top 58% in quality of the frames was selected for stacking. Next, various choices of alignment point size and brightness were evaluated to determine which combination gave an optimal coverage of alignment points on the reference lunar frame surface. The choices made here would ultimately impact on the quality of the stacked output. In the present case, alignment point size and brightness were chosen to be 144 and 50, respectively, which resulted in 113 alignment points which fully covered the lunar surface. Lastly, after checking Replace and Multi-scale options, the chosen percentage of frames was stacked to get a TIF output image.
The TIF output image was cropped to a square aspect in Lightroom Classic. After masking, the highlights and shadows in the background sky were reduced by setting the respective sliders to -50 each. For the lunar subject, a tonal adjustment was made by setting the sliders for exposure, highlights, whites and blacks to 0.15, 8, 16 and -12, respectively; a color adjustment was made by moving the temperature and tint sliders to -20 and -19, respectively; and lastly effects were introduced by sliding the clarity, dehaze and grain values to 8, 8 and 10, respectively.
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--- Kåhögsobservatoriet ---
Fotograferad från balkongen 31/5 2020
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--- Technical info ---
Target: Moon
Focal Length: 1400 mm
Resolution: 0.65 arcsec/px
Imaging telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8 @f7
Imaging camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Gain: 120
Sensor temp:
Filter: Baader UV/IR Cut
Guiding telescope:
Guiding camera:
Mount: iOptron CEM60EC
Accessories: Celestron Focus Motor
Software: Sharpcap, PIPP, Autostakkert, Registax
Dates: May 28 2020
Frames: 960
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a 70mm William Optics refractor, 2x Barlow and Canon 1100D on an EQ5 Pro mount.
Best 57% of 150 images stacked with Autostakkert!2 and processed in Lightroom, Photoshop CS2 and Fast Stone Image Viewer
58.8% Waxing Gibbous
229,443 Miles away
Broke out an old telescope I've had for years (Meade DSX-90) and thought I'd try lucky imaging on my mount. Took a video of about 4000 frames, and narrowed down the stacking to the top 500...
Foto por: Carlos Gómez
Mi primera imágen del 2020: El cráter Copérmico (Izq) tiene 93 Km de diámetro y el cráter Eratóstenes (Centro) es un cráter de impacto lunar relativamente profundo que se encuentra en el límite entre las regiones del Mare Imbrium y del Sinus Aestuum. Se halla en el límite occidental de la cordillera de los Montes Apenninus (Derecha) y tiene un diámetro de 59 Km.
04-1-2020
Bogotá, Colombia
Telescope=Maksutov 180 mm
Camera=ZWO ASI290MM
Filter=IR
Mosaico de 3 imágenes
FireCapture, Autostakkert, Pixinsight, Lightroom
Télescope Schmidt Cassegrain F/D = 10 Celestron NexStar 6 SE + APN compact Nikon Coolpix S200 en mode vidéo en projection à l'oculaire. Photos extraites d'un film AVI, traitées avec AutoStakkert et Registax 6
questo è uno stack di 60 frames scattati in raw con una EOS M al fuoco diretto di un GSO RC6.
Sto cercando di capire se era meglio fare un video o degli scatti con una dslr, e intanto vi mostro :)
Per lo stack: Autostakkert2
Waxing Crescent/30.1%
Moon Age 4.87 out of 29.39 days
March 14, 2024, about 9 pm. Tallahassee, Florida.
The seeing was good and the No. 15 yellow filter seemed to work well for improving contrast. Rupes Altai is easily seen. It is usually washed out in later phases.
TMB 80mm f/6.3 refractor; ASI585MC, full resolution (3840 x 2160) cropped; UV/IR cut filter; No.15 yellow filter; SharpCap; best 1000 frames out of 10,000. Gain 300; PIPP, AutoStakkert. WaveSharp. Photoshop (for exposure and color adjustment.)
Mars on the evening of September 25 at 20:46 in seeing conditions that were fluctuating in the above average range. (3.5-4/5). Image is the best 33% of 51,160 frames with Autostakkert.
Earth distance 0.565 AU.
Phase 89.2%
Celestron CPC Deluxe 1100 HD
ASI290MC camera
X-Cel 2.0 Barlow
ZWO ADC
9400mm focal length
3.4ms exposure
286 fps average
180 seconds capture.
ZWO ASI178MC
Meade LX850 (12" f/8)
Losmandy G11
Captured 1000 frames with Firecapture
Stacked best 75% with Autostakkert
Wavelet sharpened with Registax
Finished with Photoshop to include oversaturating colors
On Monday 22nd March 2021 at 20:08:53 GMT the International Space Station transited the 62% Waxing Gibbous Moon. Fortunately our back garden was just 0.3 km from the centre line so I was able to capture this despite the fact we're still in lockdown. There was a lot of thin cloud around so conditions were tricky!
Taken with a William Optics 70mm refractor and ASI120MC camera. A 1,340 frame video was captured using SharpCap, then the individual frames were extracted using PIPP. The 29 frames that contained the ISS were then stacked using StarStaX in Lighten mode. The stacked image was processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer. I then did a stack of the best 50% of the video frames using Autostakkert! 3 to give me a better result on the Moon. Once I'd processed that, I blended the stacked image with the ISS frames. It is so awesome to see the ISS flying over Copernicus!
This is only the second time I've imaged an ISS transit where the ISS was illuminated. It makes it much easier to see when it's about the cross the Moon!
The lighting over Mare Tranquillitatis in this image is a very good representation of how the area would have looked as Armstrong and Aldrin were on final approach for their landing on 1969-07-20 2018 UT. The altitude of the Sun over this region would have matched what it was for the crew of Apollo 11 at that time, to within a degree or so. This image was taken 618 lunar months after the first successful landing of humans on the Moon. The craters named after Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins are just resolved in this image.
This is a stack of the best 400 frames from a 1500 frame AVI shot with a Point Grey Flea3 color camera through a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/10 (no Barlow lens). Stacking was done in AutoStakkert!3, with further processing in PixInsight (mostly wavelets) and PS CS 5.1.
Taken with an 8" Ritchie Cretien telescope fitted with Baader solar filter and Canon 1100D on an EQ5 Pro mount.
90 images stacked using Autostakkert then processed in Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Lightroom
2" lx200r with 2.5x powermate, LRGB filters and chameleon 3 camera. Each filter 2000 frames, the best 30% stacked in AutoStakkert, processed and combined in Photoshop
Best 35% of 2000 frames in Autostakkert.
FireCapture v2.4 Settings
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Scope=Celestron CPC 800 XLT
Camera=ZWO ASI120MC-S, Shorty 2X Barlow
Filter=RGB
Diameter=17.94"
Magnitude=-1.75
CM=342.2° (during mid of capture)
FocalLength=4750mm
Resolution=0.16"
Start=210750.500
Mid=210811.076
End=210831.653
Duration=41.153s
LT=UT -4h
Frames captured=2000
ROI=512x400
FPS (avg.)=48
Shutter=20.58ms
Gain=37
Histogramm=48%
Sensor temperature=33.5 °C
Evostar 72ED with full aperture Hoya Pro ND16,Sol'Ex SHG and QHY5III 178M riding on a EQ6 Pro mount. Stack of 12 out of 15 scans stacked in Autostakkert and sharpened in IMPPG and finishing in PS CS2.
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with an 8" Ritchie Chretien telescope, 0.8 focal reducer and Canon 1100D on an EQ6 mount, tracking at lunar rate.
ISO-1600 1/1600 sec exp. 200 images shot, then the best 55% of them stacked using Autostakkert! 2.
Stacked image processed using Lightroom, Fast Stone and Focus Magic
Reprocess of March 31 (left) and April 8 (with Europa) captures.
Telescope=CPC800 XLT
Camera=ASI120MC-S
Shorty 2X Barlow
Left image is best 77% of 2000 frames.
Right image is best 33% of 2000 frames.
(Autostakkert, Registax 6, Photoshop CC 2015)
Hardware: ZWO-ASI174MM, TeleVue 4x Powermate, EOS-90D, Meade SN10, iOptron CEM60
Software: Firecapture, Autostakkert! & Photoshop 2020
Imaging telescopes or lenses:Meade Starfinder 8
Imaging cameras:Point Grey 5MP mono
Mounts:Losmandy GM-8
Software:Autostakkert! Autostackert! , FireCapture 2.4 Firecapture , Adobe Photoshop CS4 Photoshop CS4
Filters:Ha filter
Date:June 28, 2020
Frames: 200
FPS: 15.00000
Focal length: 1220
Resolution: 10773x13542
Data source: Backyard
Description
2 panel mosaic, 200/5000 total frames
This is my first attempt at a Hydrogen Alpha image of the sun, showing Active Region (AR) 2674 and 2679 (both to the left) and AR 2677 and 2678 (to the right). The image was taken using a QHY5-290C camera attached to a Lunt 50 THA solar scope. It is the result of 400 frames, stacked in Autostakkert 3 and processed using Registax6.
Sony A7RIV+ 200-600mm + 1.4TC , crop mode . 300 images 20% stack in Autostakkert, Sharpened in Photoshop using Astra Image filter, Oldham , UK
Saturn
This is the first planetary record I've done this year. The seeing was not favorable in the region where I live (unfortunately), but the training is worth it. In 2021, the closest approximation between Saturn and Earth will take place in August.
Sky-Watcher 203mm F/5 EQ5 reflector with Onstep, ASI 290MC, Barlow Tele Vue 3x, UV/IR Cut Filter. FireCapture, AutoStakkert, RegiStax, AstroSurface, WinJUPOS and Fitswork.
@LopesCosmos
This wide view of our Moon’s landscape spans the region from 37° North to the lunar North Pole. It is full of visually and geologically interesting features. Let’s take a tour…
Let’s start with the crater at lower right, with the distinct outer rampart, the lava-filled crater floor, and two craters entirely enclosed within the crater floor. This is Cassini crater. The larger of the two craters inside the main basin is Cassini A. Notice that the Cassini A crater has a heart shape in this lighting (Andrew Planck describes it as a tear drop). Also note the relatively bright patch in the mountains above Cassini. This is a feature known as Cassini K. A meteor impact here dug a 3.47 km wide crater here (not resolved in this photo), and the light material is likely the subsurface material excavated and ejected by the impact. It must be relatively recent, as it has not had time to be weathered and darkened by long exposure to solar radiation.
The arc of mountains above Cassini are the Montes Alpes. These mountains are part of the outer basin ring surrounding Mare Imbrium, the vast lava plain filling the lower center and left of this photo. The mountains disappear in the darkness at the lunar terminator, just beyond the large circular walled plain of Plato crater. A keen eye might detect three or four craterlets in Plato’s interior. Less acuity is needed to detect the meandering crack extending from Plato’s eastern rim, Rimae Plato, running eastward and northward into a second lava sea known as Mare Frigoris which marks the outer limits of the Montes Alpes. To the east of Plato Crater a broad slash can be seen cutting through the Montes Alpes. This is the Alpine Valley, a graben feature, or “stretch mark” in the Moon’s crust, a place where the Moon’s surface stretched apart, and the ground surface fell into the resultant gap. Another close look reveals another thin crack running the length of the Alpine Valley. Detecting this crack and the craterlets in Plato are the two of the aspects of this photo which please me. Not that they are great achievements in imaging, but they are like trophies for me.
To the left of Cassini Crater a lonely mountain rises 2.3 kilometers above the floor of Mare Imbrium. This is Mons Piton. It may be part of a mostly buried inner ring of mountains surrounding the Imbrium Basin. Other isolated peaks and the larger mountain complexes below Plato (the Montes Teneriffe) also seem to be part of this inner ring. Below Mons Piton, near the bottom of the image right of center is an oddly shaped hill. Once, this feature was called Piton Gamma (not very interesting, that), but the name was dropped from the official lunar nomenclature in 1973 and now the feature is officially nameless. Recently the lunar and astrophotographer Robert Reeves has championed the unofficial designation “Thor’s Hammer”. Even the quickest of looks will convince a viewer of the aptness of this name.
Returning to the North, consider Mare Frigoris. This long, narrow lunar sea spans most of the northern portion of the visible face of the Moon. That makes it sort of an oddball among the great lunar seas. The others appear roughly circular and fill basins on the Moon. Current thought regards Mare Frigoris as a relic of a great fissuring episode in the history of the Moon’s nearside crust. Staggering volumes of lava flowed from these rifts covering much of the nearside face of the Moon, creating not only Mare Frigoris, but also the vast Oceanus Procellarum.
North of Mare Frigoris, above Plato crater, is an irregular ring of hills. Its western extent touches the lunar terminator. It encloses a jumbled and block-strewn basin that is barely distinguishable among the myriad craters of the lunar north. As an Alabamian, this crater stands out to me for its name: this is Birmingham. East of Birmingham a larger diamond-shaped plain is seen. This is W. Bond crater. The crater sitting astride its southwestern face is Timaeus, and the smaller crater within the eastern point of the diamond is W.Bond B. Crossing the center of the diamond roughly horizontally is a hairline crack marking an officially unnamed rille, otherwise widely known as Rima W.Bond. Imaging this is another of the small personal “woo-hoo!”s of this photograph.
Above W. Bond lies a mid-sized walled-plain crater known as Barrow crater. Barrow Crater abuts on its northeastern side the larger multi-lobed lava plain called Meton (it always resembles a clover to me). On its northwestern side Barrow touches another large lava plain called Goldschmidt. Note the impressive shadows cast by the higher portions of Goldschmidt’s eastern rim. Goldschmidt’s western rim has been destroyed by a younger crater; this one has a well-defined rampart on its eastern side which intrudes onto Goldschmidt’s basin, and its high western rampart peaks brightly reflect the light of the rising sun. This is Anaxagoras crater, one of the most recent generation of lunar craters. It retains a system of bright rays. These rays are best seen when the Sun strikes the Moon more directly, but they are evident in this photo as the lighter streaks of material sprayed across Meton, Barrow and W. Bond craters.
Lastly, we skip to the top of the Moon, to the point where the illuminated limb of the Moon meets the lunar terminator. Here lunar features are very difficult to sort out due to extreme foreshortening effects. Broad round craters are visible only as thin ovals. The very topmost trace of illuminated ridges seen here are actually high points of features from the far side of the Moon. They are seen because the Moon, on day this photo was taken, was leaning with its North Pole slightly towards the Earth. In that uppermost corner of the Moon, one of those long thin ellipses can be seen emerging from the dark beyond the terminator and extending eastward, its northernmost rim illuminated just inside those high points from the other side. This ellipse is the crater Peary. Its interior is almost constantly hidden from the light of the Sun. Over its northernmost rim, just below the point where the Moon’s northern limb touches the lunar terminator, lies the Moon’s North Pole. It is amidst the perpetually gloomy voids carved into this polar region, like similar regions at the Moon’s South Pole, that humankind dreams of establishing a permanent base. NASA, like the space programs of other countries, has begun recruiting the class of astronauts that will be tasked with this remarkable feat of exploration. Within our lifetimes. Within this decade.
Celestron EdgeHD 8 telescope, ZWO ASI290MM monochrome camera, Celestron Advanced VX mount.
Pre-processing of 1133 frame .ser file with PIPP. Best 25% of those video frames stacked with AutoStakkert 3, wavelets processing with Registax 6, and final processing in Photoshop CC 2020.
Image taken February 2, 2020.
Getting better data from the new camera inspired me to put some more effort into my Pixinsight planetary workflow. I'm very pleased with my results. Questar 89/1350 mm telescope with Dakin 2x Barlow, UV/IR cut filter and ZWO ASI224MC planetary video camera. Taken 2018-08-07 05:36 UT from Austin, Texas. Exposed 57.6 msec at a gain of 330. The best 15% of 3,094 frames captured with FireCapture and stacked in Autostakkert 3 with 3x drizzle. Postprocessing in PixInsight with final exposure tweaks in Photoshop.
Taken from Oxfordshire, UK with a William Optics 70mm refractor and ASI120MC camera on an EQ5 mount tracking at lunar speed. I took this image during the lunar occultation of Uranus.
Best 50% of 1,000 frame video, stacked in Autostakkert! 3, wavelets adjusted in Registax 6, processed in Lightroom and Fast Stone Image Viewer.
Saturn
This is the first planetary record I've done this year. The seeing was not favorable in the region where I live (unfortunately), but the training is worth it. In 2021, the closest approximation between Saturn and Earth will take place in August.
Sky-Watcher 203mm F/5 EQ5 reflector with Onstep, ASI 290MC, Barlow Tele Vue 3x, UV/IR Cut Filter. FireCapture, AutoStakkert, RegiStax, AstroSurface, WinJUPOS and Fitswork.
@LopesCosmos