Had one perfect night of astrophotography last Tuesday that changed my mind about lunar shots

Everyone keeps saying the Milky Way is where it's at, but I got a crystal clear, high-contrast moon close-up with my old 8-inch Dobsonian and a smartphone adapter. Has anyone else had a random night that made them appreciate something simple like the moon over the deep sky stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

brown.susan2d ago

Late last month I got a moon shot that looked like someone photoshopped a marble into the sky. My 10-inch does the job but that night the seeing was dead steady and I caught a crisp terminator with shadows from Tycho and Copernicus popping. I learned to check the Clear Outside app for transparency and humidity before I bother with deep sky stuff. Low humidity nights are where lunar work really shines. Sometimes a good moon shot beats waiting hours for a single nebula frame that ends up blurry.

christophermurray2d ago

brown.susan nailed it with the "low humidity" thing. I had a night last winter where the air was SO dry my lips were cracking but the moon looked like it was printed on velvet. I use the Clear Outside app too and I only bother with lunar stuff when humidity is under 40%. Another thing that helped me was collimating my Dobsonian super carefully before those sessions. I spent months blaming my camera adapter for soft focus when it was actually my secondary mirror being slightly off. Getting that terminator sharp as a razor makes everything worth it.