Colorful Full Moon 2/27/2010
What's up with the crazy color? This is the result of a special image processing technique to emphasize the differences in color. What do you think? The Lab Curves technique is described about halfway down on this page. Susan asked about the "asterisk features." See this APOD page regarding lunar rays for more info on the asterisks.
According to "The Sky" the moon above was 99.36% full and per Lunar Phase Pro was 222, 360 miles away, which is closer than average. You can make out a tiny bit of shadow detail on the lower & left part. We had some pleasant weather and clear skies Saturday, 2/27/2010. I took advantage of the opportunity to verify the proper imaging configuration using the 1.6x extender, and I also worked through some issues with new camera drivers and capture software. Much better to do that in the back yard than on a mountain 1000 miles away! Takahashi TOA 130 Telescope (a 5" APO refractor) with 1.6 extender, AP 900GTO mount, and QHY8 CCD Camera & normal workflow. The image was exposed for the shortest time the CCD camera will allow; not sure what that is exactly!
 Hatfield (Mirror Image) Labels |  Rukl (Normal) Labels |  Big Moon - just after full, 11/27/04 1/200 sec, Takahashi TOA130 f7.7, fl=1000mm, Nikon D100, cropped, camera resolution |
 "The Straight Wall" or Rupes Recta 8 day 16 hr old Moon 2/20/2002 Hatfield (mirror) orientation |
|  Moon 4.6 days old. |
 Above: 7 day old moon features labeled | . |  8 day old Moon labeled |
 11 day old moon labels |  Gassendi, M Humorum Doppelmayer area. (11 day old moon) |  Annotated 13 days 14 hr. Moon. |
Rupes Recta - Straight Wall - Rupes are fault scarps, where tectonic action took place. This particular example is easy to see in just about any telescope. Look for it when the moon is 8-9 days old. It's located east of Birt in the eastern Mare Nubium. It runs for 130 km, rising about 240-300 meters high. It's just a moderate slope rather than a steep drop as it might appear.
Mirror Reversed Moon Maps: I've always had trouble orienting myself when observing the moon. My telescope shows a mirror reversed field, and most maps aren't drawn this way. This page has some reversed images, with labels that help you get oriented when viewing.
Equipment Notes: Takahashi telescopes, Olympus C4040 digicam and Nikon D100 DSLR cameras, Losamandy GM8 and G11 mounts.
Copyright © 1998-2010 by Dick Locke. All Rights Reserved.
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