Posts Made By: Stefan Lammel

Hi all,

Following on from the Sinus Iridum image here is an expanded view of the area covering the northwest terminator on 17th February 21:58-22.50UT.

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/98140204/original

As you might expect the exposure levels in the AVIs were quite different moving north, hopefully after some tweaking in Photoshop the transitions aren't too obvious!

I couldn't resist a few variations at different image scales and orientations -
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/97684703/original

Somehow I prefer this image south up but for those who like their images the 'right' way up (like me normally! ;o)
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/97044155/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/97858293/original (120% enlarged)

10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 4x PowerMate, green filter, 350/2700, MAP: ~128x64, Registax, PSE 5, Focus Magic, 4 frame mosaic

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

Here's one from 11th April of Alexander and Eudoxus with just the top of
their rims catching the morning light, and to the east are the Daniell Rilles.

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/98975415/original (enlarged to 144%)
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/99148633/original (enlarged to 180%)

It looks to me like there are the remains of a degraded crater that I haven't
noticed before (similar in size to Eudoxus) just to the east of Eudoxus. You
can see the outline of what remains of its southern rim with the northern
section obliterated by the debris from Imbrium or maybe the impact that
created Lacus Mortis.

10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 4x PowerMate, green filter, 500/1100,
MAP: 64x64, Registax, PSE 5, Focus Magic

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

I seem to have been working on this one for just ages! It's
way past time I let it go and so here it is, warts and all.
It's a 5 frame mosaic taken on 15th February between 18.20
and 20.17 UT.

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/103806345/original enlarged to 130%
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/103835992/original 100%, east up
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/103836460/original 75%

Its been a tough one to deal with, I've never spent so much
time on an image before. Endless cosmetic surgery on ringing
artefacts and shadows, matching up AVIs with different
exposures and length. Hopefully the problem areas are not
too obvious now!

At last I had some good seeing on Saturday 22nd and had a
chance to try out the new Baader blue filter for the first
time in good conditions, so there will be more to come soon

10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 4x PowerMate, green filter,
400/1000-2000, MAP: 85-180x64, Registax, PSE 5, Focus Magic,
5 frame mosaic

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

While exploring the locations of the potential impact sites of next years LCROSS
mission, Faustini and Cabeus, I thought I’d have a go at matching up Ewan
Whitaker’s South Pole map with some images from 14th Oct 06 & 26th Feb 07
to help with identification of these craters. For the best effect I suggest loading
the images into Photoshop then copy the map on top of the image and switch
between layers. I’ve always found the South Polar landscape to be a pretty
confusing place, matching up this map helps make it a bit easier to get my
head around.

Faustini
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/104360739/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/104360740/original

Cabeus
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/104360794/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/104360793/original

Widefield
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/104360792/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/104360791/original


It's nice to see how well some of the features align, eg. Newton and the snaking
ridge alongside, M1, 2 (much less prominent though), 3, 4, 5, Malapert alpha (?)
and the rim of the small crater just in front of the South Pole (I think). There was
a considerable difference in libration so there was a lot of adjustment (the original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/78650074 ) and yet this still very useful
map from 1954 matches up well to the reality of a present day image. There are
however some interesting differences, for example where is M6, perhaps further
back in the shadows or is it the much less prominent area shown?

From the dates given recently (8-10 Oct) for the phase and libration that could
be a good match for the favored impact scenarios next year, it seems the plan is
for the impact to occur when the libration puts these craters a lot nearer the limb
(latitudinal libration 0 to +2° if I’ve worked it out correctly, compared to approx
-5° in these images) so the craters themselves will be much less visible, if at all.
I'm not sure why this libration has been chosen, assuming there was the choice
of having the craters tilted more favourably. I thought perhaps it could be so that
the plume will be more visible against the night sky for observations from Earth,
but I wouldn't have thought it would go that high. :S

LCROSS website http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

Heres a mosaic taken in good seeing on 19th October 2:28UT. I have been
using a higher sampling recently with a 5x Powermate which I modified to
give around 5x (instead of 7x when used for imaging) by removing the top
section and attaching it directly to the camera with epoxy and parcel
tape (!). I wish I had done it ages ago and I am fairly sure I will
stick (pun not intended!) with this magnification now.

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/105598249/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/105679150/original 120%
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/105678874/original 80% south up


10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 5x PowerMate, green filter,
350/2500, MAP: ~180x64, Registax, PSE 5, Focus Magic, 3 frame mosaic


Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

It's been a while but I had some decent seeing on January 6th and here is the first image. Below
is a crop of the four frame mosaic which can be seen here -

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/109091621/original (120% enlarged)

I found it was easier to make sense of what is going on near the pole when enlarged to 160% -

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/109090816/original

...and the slightly smaller original size version -

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/109091756/original


10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 5x PowerMate, green filter, Avistack, Registax, PSE 5, Focus Magic

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

The seeing was quite variable on March 5th but at least one AVI came out fairly well -

http://www.pbase.com/image/110143385/original (x1.2)

Unfortunately on the next AVI the seeing was quite a bit worse. I'm not sure if this is really worthwhile but together they make a nice widefield view, or would have... http://www.pbase.com/image/110145735/original

10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 4x Powermate, green filter, 200/7000, Avistack, Registax v.5, PSE5, Focus Magic

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

I had some nice seeing on April 2nd which allowed me to try out the Baader blue
filter with the 5x Powermate for the first time. Under this ideal lighting
comparing these two shows they have had very different histories.

It looks like the blue has worked well with this seeing and I'm very pleased
with the resolution. Although I didn't realize it at the time the AVI was taken
within minutes of perigee so that would also have helped things along nicely
that evening. Hard to say how much better this might be (if at all) than if I
had used a green as I didn't want to use up valuable imaging time to compare
them, but I think the blue has probably helped and at the very least was not
completely inappropriate for the seeing.

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/111403425/original enlarged x1.2 cropped
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/111431549/original enlarged x1.47

crops (x1.47), north up -
Hipparchus - http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/111429696/original
Albategnius - http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/111429690/original


10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 5x Powermate, blue filter, Avistack,
Registax v.5, PSE5, Focus Magic

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

I managed to squeeze in a session on Saturday, probably the last this year until
the Moon gets a bit higher again in September. These images were taken as the
sun was setting so the AVIs were bright from sky glow and needed quite a bit of
stretching which resulted in even more noise than usual (next time maybe I
should try 12 bit capture to hopefully cope better with the effects of the extra
stretching).

Again I used the new generation Baader blue filter, I thought I would probably
need to change it due to the Moon's low altitude at around 30-35 degrees but it
was ok and I was again pleasantly surprised by the results. The Moon was down to
29 degrees by the end of the AVI covering the right hand side of the Marginis
image but I think the result was still worthwhile.

Hercules, Atlas, Endymion & Mare Humboldtianum
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/113222533/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/113222492/original (x1.2)
Notice the concentric crater just below Endymion.

Maria Marginis, Smythii, Undarum & Spumans
http://upload.pbase.com/image/113165859/original
http://upload.pbase.com/image/113166514/original (x1.15)
You can just about make out the swirls in Marginis, although under this lighting
and resolution everything is a bit swirly ;o) The x1.15 enlargement is noisy and
probably a bit pointless but might work for some, it looks ok on my blurry old
crt but not so good on the laptop.

(BTW, for those using Firefox there is a nice 'hand' tool add-on that makes
navigating large images much easier
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1250 . Apart from moving the
image around, with the flick gesture you can get the image moving slowly across
the screen like a 'fly over' effect, well it's cheaper than the real thing
anyway! ;o)

10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 5x Powermate, blue filter, Avistack,
Registax 5, PSE5, Focus Magic

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

Here are some late arrivals that I have finally got around to processing from last year...

Mare Fecunditatis -
...I love the contrast in this scene between the well lit highlands on the left and the dramatic low lighting on the mare on the right with its ghost craters, ridges and secondary cratering from Langrenus (in deep shadow). Notice the sunken crater Ibn Battuta near the center where the mare lavas must have come right up to the rim. The contrast between the two areas is like chalk and cheese, as if they are two different images stuck together (it's not, honest! ;o)

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/111165302/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/111165789/original x1.3

Sinus Iridum -
This is from the day before a previous image, coincidentally almost exactly 24 hours apart. In the animated GIF the images are aligned on Promontorium Laplace to show the apparent 'shearing' effect of libration where features that are in a line roughly with the two promontories Laplace and Heraclides are stationary, whereas features above the line appear to move up and to the right on the next day, and below it move down and to the left.

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/110475320/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/110473174/original x1.2
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/110477897/original 24 hrs apart
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/113616518/original animated GIF
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/113617341/original GIF of VMA screenshots

10in f4.8 Newtonian, Infinity 2-1M, 5x (Fecunditatis) / 4x (Iridum) Powermate, green filter, Avistack, Registax v.5, PSE5, Focus Magic

Regards,
Stefan