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Using web cameras can also generate fine images of the Moon. Typically
I do this while participating in public star parties at Griffith Observatory (the satellite facility at the current time),
which gives the public a chance to see the Moon easily while I get data to convert into high quality images later. The
stacking process is too computer processing intensive to do while showing the video of the moon to the public.
The images were taken with a Creative Pro eX web camera unless otherwise stated. My telescope
is a 127 mm aperture f/12.1 Maksutov-Cassegrain.
The following are my best efforts.
This image was taken on July 24th 2004 by holding a Nikon Coolpix
4300 digital camera up to the eyepiece of my telescope. The over 4 million pixels of the camera allows a lot of definition
to be captured despite the wide angle view, and allows for some digital magnification of the image. This is my best
wide angle image of the Moon.
Taken on April 16th 2005. This shows the two bright ray
systems flanking the crater Stevinus near the center. The patches of dark terrain in the lower right corrner of the
Moon are part of Mare Astrinus. The following image show Mare Austrinus more clearly.
This image was aligned to show all of Mare Austrinus and was taken
on April 16th 2005, the same date as the previous image using the same equipment. Mare Austrinus consists of a series
of craters whose floors are covered with dark basaltic flows similar to the ones that cover the other Mare basins. But
in this case, Austrinus does not consist of a single continuous sheet of basalt, but a series of craters. However, the
general outline of Mare Austrinus is circular when seen from above by spacecraft.
The Moon rose in eclipse, darkened by the Earth's shadow, on May
15th 2003. This image was taken holding a Nikon 4300 Coolpix digital camera up to the eyepiece of my telescope.
The web camera can only capture a small area of the Moon through my telescope, so the Nikon was the only way to capture the
entire Moon.
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