More from our nearest neighbour.

Sunday was a day of work for me. Finished early enough to roll back the roof for what was about an hours break before the clouds rolled across at around hrs. This is the first time I have used my William Optics GT 81 triplet refractor for lunar imaging. The focusser on the scope is wonderfully smooth and allowed a quick set up. Imaging at f11.8 I am pleased with detail. Registax calibrated using 70% of the best of 1500 frames. Processed in Photoshop with a layers mask overlay to increase contrast. A high pass filter also used to selectively sharpen. Width across the image approx 1000 km. Centred is my favourite crater on the surface "Plato" Age is anything from 3.2 to 3.8 billion years old. A perfct circular shape has obliterated what was a mountainous area. Appearance in the centre is of a smooth surface formed by lava. There are craters in the central area, not visible at this focal lenth. High walls and steep slopes of 2000 metres are almost perfect aprt fromon the left edge is a partial collapse. I have also neglected to change the image to B & W I like the contrast from the imbrium basin.

My second image is again the same focal lenth as before. The 93x93 Km crater "Copernicus" is the showcase of this lunar vista splashed just south of  the tail of the Appennine mountain range. It's central peaks rise approx 1200 metres high about the same as the Caign Gorm mountains.  Everywhere you look is something different and interesting to look at.


















Using the live view record feature I can record using the 5 x magnification feature. Therefore not just a crop of the above image.
I am forever amazed that just an 81mm refractor is capable of this.
On the right edge lies  Eratosthenes. Very high slopes and walls require a more oblique angle from the sun to illuminate the walls slightly smaller than copernicus at 60 km's wide. A high pass filter and unsharp masking has teased a little more detail out.






Finally a mosaic of 2 of the images. My intention was not to create a mosaic this time. I was just imaging random objects. 2 line up so here they are.