Moon on Saturday (85%) with Copernicus and Tycho Close-Ups

astrostu

We just had our Astronomy Day open house on Saturday and when the deck was empty, I took a few shots through our 16". Top shot is the area around Copernicus Crater with its dense ejecta blanket and terraced walls (not the best phase to shoot it, but oh well), middle is the area around Tycho Crater (the one with the central peak, and with ejecta that can be seen across the entire mosaic below), and then there's the mosaic of the moon that I do whenever it's up and I'm at the 'scopes (version posted is significantly down-sized).

You may notice that these aren't quite as sharp as some photos you'll find elsewhere. Unfortunately, Boulder (Colorado, USA) is just east of the Rocky Mountains and the seeing (smallest size object you can resolve through the atmosphere) is not good. Last night's seeing was around 1.8 arcseconds. A decent, average site will be around 1-1.5 arcseconds (so up to 2x as much detail). Good astronomical sites get down to around 0.3 arcseconds from Earth, and then we go above the atmosphere and are no longer limited by that.

Copernicus Crater Region


Tycho Crater Region


Waxing Moon 85% Full

rhondavid

Love all three of them but the last one really knocks my socks off.

Excellent job!!

astrostu

Thank you, David.