Humboldt from last night

Hi all,

I usually take ages to process AVIs but as I only managed 4 from last night before the clouds rolled in I thought I'd do this one straight away.

Last night was THE most frustrating session ever. The priority was to get some AVIs of Humboldt as the libration was ideal at its maximum for this lunation of 8° in the south east. Having taken some AVIs with the 4x Powermate I changed to the 5x for the first time in ages as the seeing looked like it might just take it. While focusing I could see some terrific detail, much better than I saw with the 4x, the seeing seemed good and I just knew this was going to make a really stunning image. Then the clouds came in and ruined everything. I can't tell you how frustrating that was!

I dont know how come the view was so good with the Jet stream overhead, maybe it was a freak local occurence. I nearly didn't bother imaging after I discovered it was there, but maybe I wont be relying on this as an indicator so much in future.

Anyway, theres always the next time and I'm fairly pleased with this one. Humboldt is a really magnificent crater and has just leapt to the top of my personal hit list. So heres the consolation image, hot off the press for once!

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/72534319/original

10in f4.8 Newtonian, DMK 21AF04, 4x PowerMate, green filter, Registax v4, PSE 5, 1/120s, 600/5000 frames, 12x128 MAP, x2 enlarged

Regards,
Stefan

Attached Image:

Stefan,

Wow! That is nice!! A keeper for sure.

Paul

Hi Stefan,

Beautiful and very interesting image of Humboldt, the high sun angle gives a different look to some interesting features, with the good seeing you had
I know how disappointing it must have been to have the clouds roll in.

Clear and steady skies,

Wes Higgins

Hi Stefan -

I am struck by this image - the hint of depth at this high sun angle is very special and must have been quite difficult to process to retain such a natural result. Makes me want to spend some time at the eyepiece on the bright sunlit regions a long way from the terminator - something I don't often do.

Thanks!
Alan

The thing that impresses me about this image is the way you can see the contours of the topography even without any shadows to emphasize them. I think high sunlit areas of the moon are unfairly neglected.