My Moon Pics

[AlienHunter]

I took these pic's of the moon with my dslr and telescope, I never realised at the time but some dirt got on to either the lens or mirror in my telescope. I was kind of disappointed when I seen it, but the images came out not bad. This is my first time taking pictures of the moon, so I need a lot more practice before I get it much more clearer and sharper, thought you guys might enjoy seeing them, Enjoy

 

[Goggs Mackay]

Great stuff. I just love looking at the moon on a clear night and I wish I had a decent telescope to do it with.

Thanks for posting these. Any other forum members with anything of their own should feel free to post. We all like looking at cool shit and pics of the moon absolutely qualify.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

What is the explanation for the white coloured 'rays' - the straight lines that emanate from apparent meteor craters like rays from a sun?

In on the moon pics, a very prominent ray starts at a very bright star-like point on the moon and it carries on right over the rim of a huge crater, across and over the other side and carries on? So does that mean that however the line was created, it must have happened after the large crater was made?

In the particular case I am talking about (top photo, centre, about 3/4 way down on photo), perhaps what I am calling a huge crater is actually a 'Maria' the 'seas' of the moon but anyway, the very noticeable white ray seems to originate in relatively small impact crater yet the ray is very long and bright, as if a huge amount of ejecta had been blown on that trajectory and dropped enough material along its' flightpath?

I can stare at this stuff for ages...

 

[AlienHunter]

What is the explanation for the white coloured 'rays' - the straight lines that emanate from apparent meteor craters like rays from a sun?

In on the moon pics, a very prominent ray starts at a very bright star-like point on the moon and it carries on right over the rim of a huge crater, across and over the other side and carries on? So does that mean that however the line was created, it must have happened after the large crater was made?

In the particular case I am talking about (top photo, centre, about 3/4 way down on photo), perhaps what I am calling a huge crater is actually a 'Maria' the 'seas' of the moon but anyway, the very noticeable white ray seems to originate in relatively small impact crater yet the ray is very long and bright, as if a huge amount of ejecta had been blown on that trajectory and dropped enough material along its' flightpath?

I can stare at this stuff for ages...

Once I put them into photoshop I used the raw files and added contrast and more detail, I made the whites a bit brighter and blacks more dark, it brings out a lot more detail and gives you much more depth. The white marks do look strange, but I think they could possibly be smaller craters where the light is much more concentrated. But I don't understand why they spread out like that unless its just part of the impact, possibly the moon dust is newer in the bottom or something and the impact has spread it out over the older moon dust, I really don't have a clue, but when you put it through photoshop and add more detail these things become much more apparent. Everything you see there is what the sensor picked up, I only made it stand out more. But you do make a good point, the material of the craters and in that area looks different than the rest with those rays spreading out.

 

[AlienHunter]

Great stuff. I just love looking at the moon on a clear night and I wish I had a decent telescope to do it with.

Thanks for posting these. Any other forum members with anything of their own should feel free to post. We all like looking at cool shit and pics of the moon absolutely qualify.

Thanks goggs I went up to crawfordjohn, not very far from me in Motherwell, it was a great night last night for moon pic's. I wasn't actually planning on getting moon shots but when I got up there the moon light was making the stars hard to see due to the light drowning them out. This telescope I got is essentially a starter telescope, I think it was around £150 or something it's a skywatcher, it's a really good telescope for the price. It really comes down to atmospheric conditions when getting a good moon shot, last night was just a perfect night for it but had to cut it short due to it getting to -2 and everything was starting to freeze up lol. The camera is also a starter DSLR, Nikon d3200, it's a great little camera, but it's a half sensor which means you don't get as much picture as a full sensor, it's like taking an A4 piece of paper and cutting it in half when it comes to an image.

You could pick up a Nikon d3200 for about £200 with a starter lens, but the best thing to do is get an adapter for the telescope and just mount it on to that instead of using a high mm lens. I also have pictures of the milky way I got a while ago I will need to look out, doing this is quite fun too. You just get a decent lens and a good tripod, face the camera at the milky way and take a long exposure for about 25 seconds, you want to let in as much light as possible, take a good few of them and stack them and you can have some pretty amazing photos. If you want to take pictures of nebula in deep space you need to go for about an 8inch telescope, that's when stuff gets pricey. I don't think I would go down that route for a good while lol. But if you search about you can find great deals and you can easily set something like this up for yourself. All you need is to get out of the city's or towns light pollution, but even for the moon last night you could still have gotten good shots from the window of your home if you could see it outside.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

Yeah AlienHunter - I'd absolutely love to see any astronomical photos (or anything else for that matter) you've taken. I won't be the only one here either...

I may look out a thread I started a couple of years ago, it was basically a thread for members to post photos taken round their own local area, so other members could see where they live and what kind of landscape was there. We had cities, rivers, farms and all sorts. I really love that thread and of course when it falls back from view, people don't know it's there to add to it so I may have to bring it to the front again. Not because it's mine but because it's a thread that 100% of members can add to and have as valid a contribution as anyone else.