MOON PHOTOS

After 10 years, I've dusted off my telescope and am now starting to take pictures of the moon again. In the background is one of my new attempts.The pictures above are the best images I've managed to capture with my equipment so far. Telescope: Celestron C8, camera: ZWO ASI174MM (1936x1216 pixels), IR-Pass 685 nm infrared filter, panorama composed of 45,000 images (lucky imaging), and then processed, of course. Originally processed in Autostakkert, now re-processed in Strata. The image was taken in March 2016.

Celestar C8 (1999). I’ve modified it slightly to enable autoguiding: I mounted the focus motor (JMI) on the DEC axis and replaced it with a stepper motor controlled by an Arduino IoT controller. This allows me to focus using my iPhone or MacBook Air. As a guiding scope, I use the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 with a Nikon teleconverter TC-1.4x. Guiding camera: Zwo Asi 174mm. For imaging, I use the Player One Saturn-M SQR.

Celestron Celestar C8 (1999)
Vixen 130/720
Vixen 100/900

The Imaging Source DMK 41
ZWO ASI 174MM
Player One Saturn-M SQR

Baader IR-Pass Filter (685 nm)
Astronomik ProPlanet IR-Pass (742 nm)

2026
Strata (Mac Observatory)
Laminar (Mac Observatory)
ASICap
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Photoshop

2016
Avistack
Autostakkert

Pipp

MacBook Air (15-inch, M3, 2024)
24 GB | 1 TB