Sketched with white and black charcoal on black paper at the eyepiece over 30 mins between 20h and 21h UT, so the sketch was in fact started before the fall of darkness. Archimedes lies exactly on the illuminated side of the terminator.
Photographed with the Moon at first quarter at precisely the day/time that this transient effect is visible. I was looking along the terminator and attempting to identify some of the prominent craters when all of a sudden this jumped out at me. I swear that if I had tried to find it it would have taken hours! The effect is actually only visible for approx four hours or so on one day a month when the Moon is at first quarter (lunar day 6.9). The next date it is visible is the 17th March by my…
Lucky imaging: best 25% frames from 10000 video frames.
The huge crater Copernicus displays clear ejecta rays and lines of mini craters caused by the scattering of debris from the meteor impact that created it many millions of years ago.
I thought it was worth trying sketching again considering the diabolical weather. This is done with white charcoal pencil on black cartridge paper (and so isn’t reversed in the scan). This I found actually much easier than sketching in pencil. It shows the craters Orontius, Saussure, Huggins, Nasireddin and Miller and is drawn from a photo taken at 21h15 on 28th April this year.
Lucky imaging: mosiac of 9 images using best 25% or 50% frames from 500 video frames.
A beautiful halo showed all evening today. Jupiter is also visible just to the right of the Moon.
Lucky imaging: best 25% frames from 2000 video frames. Mosaic of two images
Integration time:
Main image: Lucky imaging: best 50% frames from 4000 video frames.
Image below: Lucky imaging: best 50% frames from 1000 video frames.
This morning gave a really excellent view of Jupiter in the Dobsonian. The sky was lightening constantly as I watched and the reduction in contrast against the sky I believe enhanced considerably the view and removed any diffraction spiking that might have intruded. Venus as a semi-crecent and Sirius were also prominent.