The One Percent Phase Moon
In broad daylight at 9:00 - 9:02am
with the
Orion 10" f/3.9 Newtonian Astrograph
May 26th, 2017
Uploaded 5/26/17
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This shot
has been in the planning for at least half a year now, the opportunity
came about this morning, with the rising sun halfway up in the
sky in the east. This is by far the thinnest crescent moon I
have ever imaged. Here the moon is .80 days old - 19.2 hours
according to the Virtual Moon Atlas, and the illumination is
1.0%. The moon was just under 15 degrees east of the Sun.
And yes - I did
view the crescent visually, and it was really tough! I could
see only a portion of the crescent at one time in a low power
ocular, but it was there against a light blue sky. Few features
are seen on the limb, many black shadow filled craters are present
at this illumination.
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The setup used to take this
image so close to the Sun.
The 10" is wrapped with silver
mylar space blanket, and a black
internally carpeted baffle is on
the front of the tube to block the
Sun from entering the tube. You
can see the DMK51 camera and its
filter wheel on the scope.
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| Processing:
25/1200 best frames, alignment in Autostakkert, USM, Levels and
Contrast Masking In Photoshop CS2 |
Instrument: Orion (GSO) 10" f/3.9 prime focus
Platform: Astrophysics AP1200
CCD Camera: Image Source DMK 51
Filter: Orion IR Pass
Exposure: 1/500 sec 12fps
Location: Payson, Arizona
Elevation: 5150 ft.
Sky: Seeing 3/5, Transparency 9/10
Outside Temperature: 75F
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