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Mandy Daniels
Derbyshire, UK
09/09/2023
04:31 am

Equipment Details:

Skywatcher 200P
Explore Scientific x2 Focal Extender
Nikon D800

Post-processing Details:

Autostakkert: Stack best 25% of 112 images
GIMP: Adjust curves, sharpen, convert red & green channels to monochrome

Image Details:

I went outside at 4 a.m. to see if the Moon was visible and found it above the rooftops of neighbouring properties. It looked slightly hazy, but very clear. Looking at the stars across the whole of the sky it was apparent that there was not a sign of any of them twinkling, not even slightly, so it was time to set up and grab some images of the Moon. With the camera mounted on the telescope I pointed at the target and adjusted the telescope to see the Moon suddenly snap into focus. It looked like my efforts at collimating the telescope had paid off. After allowing it to cool I began the first imaging run at native focal length. Looking at the magnified live view, the craters just drifted by with no sign of wobble or shimmering like they usually present, but just continuous crisp clear views with so much detail. It was obvious that this would be a good time to go deeper, so I fetched the focal extender and began imaging at 2.4 metres. The results kept coming in, so I shot a couple of 1080P videos to preserve the event with the hugely detailed Moon drifting through the video frames. Inspecting this footage when I got back inside, the Moon looked like it was a perfect photograph that someone was dragging in front of a camera in a studio, rather than recorded video of the real thing.