I haven’t managed to do any astronomy for a while because the weather has been so bad. However, last night there was a brief break in the clouds and the moon shone through. It was just enough time to set up my telescope in the front garden and attach a DSLR.
You might think the full moon would be best for photographing, but when it’s a partial moon some of the craters are lit from the side and they really stand out.
This picture is a stack of 28 exposures, each shot at ISO 200 and 1/100s using a modified Canon EOS 600D. I used a 6″ f/5 Newtonian telescope with a focal length of 750mm. It was a bit hazy so I used a CLS-CCD filter to remove as much of the urban light pollution as possible.
The focus isn’t quite spot-on but it’s still probably the sharpest image of the moon I have ever taken, thanks to now having an awesome telescope 🙂 Hopefully the weather will clear up soon and I’ll be able to get back out to Somerset and shoot some more deep-space objects.
Jonathan Gazeley 