Copernicus w. secondaries & Stadius

Hi all,

I was just about to join in the "bad weather blues" but then something strange happened: I had two clear nights with the moon up in the sky (not as high as it gets here but ok) and during the second night the seeing had quite nice moments. I caught a lucky moment when imaging Copenicus with long shadows. I had to use 6 alignment points for the crater to fight seeing distortions but the resolved details really surprised me considering the conditions with lots of roofs and chimneys around emerging heat into the cold winter night.
After Copernicus itself I added two more AVIs capturing the chains of secondaries and the ancient Stadius. Seeing dropped substancially especially for the last Stadius capture but the material is still good enough for a small mosaic:



This version is reduced to 75% capture size, a 100% version can be found at:
http://www.astro-imaging.de/astro/images/copernicus_stadius_2005.12.10_100percent.jpg

Some more material like Plato is waiting on my HD...

Clear skies & best regards,
Oliver

HI Oliver,

Very good image, excellent detail on the floor of Copernicus, good range of gray levels too.

Thanks,

Wes Higgins