My First Lunar Mosiac!

Actually this is my first real astrophotograph. It's a lovely waxing crescent moon, don't you think? The large "crater" (actually, a "sea") in the image is Mare Crisium.

I took five images on May 7th, 2000 4:40 UT. I used a 90mm refractor with a 1000mm focal length (F11). Each image was taken in 3/100's of a second with a MX5-16 CCD camera at prime focus. Each image has been enhanced with a filter to enhance sharpness, but contrast was left as is.

As you can see from the images below, I'm working my way through theMessier objects, in the hopes of getting one of those Messier Certificates from The Astronomical League.

I'm going to have to go back and take better photos of some of these objects once I get more experience.

Please click on the thumbnail image to see the full resolution image and data about how and when it was taken. Click on the link for more information about the object itself.

Apollo 11 Landing Site	Apollo 16 Landing Site
Apollo 17 Landing Site	M3
M13	M51
M57	M65
M66	M81
M82	M97
M104	M106
M108	Lunar Crater Tycho

Jupiter

Here is my first photo of Jupiter. You can see Ganymede on the left and Europa on the right.

Courtesy Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Copyright (c) California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.
All rights reserved

Weather

Weather information is of course critical to amateur and professional astronomers alike. So here is a link to my observatories local weather conditions within the past hour: Weather Page