Cassiopeia Observatory

Hunter's Moon

Posted: 30 October 2012

I opened the observatory Monday, 29 October 2012, at 1819 MST, 77°F. The sky was clear and the moon had just appeared over the hill to the east. The moon was about 5.5 hours past 100% full. At 1831 MST, viewed the moon, low in the eastern sky, in the 8" LX200-ACF, 77X + moon filter. A very slight post-full phase terminator was visible.

The very bright "Hunter's Moon" was illuminating everything. I went outside of the observatory and at 1841 MST, I took this photograph with the D7000 DSLR, handhand, 1 second, ISO 1600, handheld:

A portion of the Big Dipper's handle (and a plane) is in the upper righthand corner. You can even see the double star Mizar.

After returning inside the observatory, while viewing the moon at 77X + moon filter, I decided to handhold the iPhone 4 over the eyepiece for this afocal (cropped and desaturated) image:

I removed the diagonal from the telescope and attached a focal reducer and visual back for D7000 DSLR prime focus imaging of the moon. At 1918 MST, I captured this (cropped and heavily saturated) image, 1/500sec, ISO 100:

The very thin terminator is visible along the limb at upper right. I removed the focal reducer and added a 3X TeleXtender for this image of a portion of the terminator, captured at 1929 MST, 1/500sec, ISO 500:

I stopped imaging at 1933 MST, removed the visual back and attached the diagonal. I did some more lunar observing at 77X + moon filter and 231X (26mm eyepiece + 3X TeleXtender) + moon filter. At 231X, the terminator was an especially nice view, with some good details visible. I took a tour around the entire lunar limb; several nice peaks were visible rising above the surrounding area.

I closed the observatory at 2000 MST, 65°F.

Comments are welcome; use the Comments section below, or you can Email Me. Thanks.

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