Capturing the Moon

You could say I turned into a bit of a Luna-tic tonight! ;-)

Anyway, we had nice clear skies which were somewhat stable. The moon sat almost at zenith, and my scope was behaving admirably! I decided to take some more snaps after attempting the photo of the moon with the Pleiades using more conventional methods.

Firstly, I took a quick snap using the DSLR. Nice detail, okay color. This is a 1/120 exposure at F6.3. Click on the image below for full size.

























Then I connected my Philips SPC900NC webcam to the scope via a 2X barlow and shot some closeups. I was getting some sort of interference with the image, and I am not sure where that came from. It had a minimal effect on the images, though, except for those taken near the day/night terminator.

So, the various shots are below. I identified the various features using the Virtual Moon Atlas.

Enjoy!

Straight Wall:



















Montes Appenines (taken without 2X barlow):



















Arzachel H Crater:



















Valles Alpis & Cassini Crater:



















Clavius:



















Longomontanus: