Moons Over Pittsburgh

Below are my latest shots of the moon.

Equipment Summary:

1. Orion StarSeeker 80mm Goto Refractor
2. Orion Imaging Flip Mirror
3. Orion StarShoot Planetary Imager
4. PHD Planetary Software - used to control camera, takes pics, and later to process the pics (e.g. stack and adjust color/clarity)

Date/Time:  8/27/10  10:00pm

Location:  Backyard - Pittsburgh, PA

Seeing:  Clear

Weather:  Cool but comfortable

Exposure:  10 ms x 100 images

Experience:  Good, except my EZFinder was out of alignment and I didn't want to adjust it in the dark.

Notes:

1. I used the flip mirror, but I'm not convinced it's worth the convenience.  I think I'd rather use my dielectric diagonal which is supposed to prevent light loss and should yield a better images.  I have pictures of Jupiter but the images are washed out - all white.  I'd like to get more respectable images before posting.
2. I'm still having a little trouble stacking images.  Both softwares (PHD and RegiStax) are stacking, but the resulting images aren't as good as expected.  Maybe, I'm expecting too much.

Lessons Learned:

1. Patience, Willow, patience ...

Next Time:

1. Figure a way to reduce the glare as I'm imaging.

Enjoy!

Moon Shot 1

Moon Shot 2 - Reduced glare during processing