First attempt at Earthshine

[jblaschke]

I'm *slowly* getting back into astrophotography, but struggling with the tiny, dim viewfinder of my Canon XTi/400D. Recently completed a Bahtinov mask and decided to try it out tonight despite some high clouds and less than optimal seeing. I was flat-out amazed at how well the Bahtinov improved my focusing--far more accurate and easier than my various Hartmann masks! With clouds mucking up much of the sky and the dew monster threatening, I decided to try my hand at some Earthshine shots, which I'd never tried before. Here's the best of my efforts (not great, I admit). I must've bumped the scope (obviously) but it works as proof-of-concept.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3268/3149135575_8e5803145d_o.jpg

And here's a more traditional take on the crescent. Yes, the moon's upside down here. And it was low on the horizon, moving into tree branches. Haze made focus a crapshoot. But I like the color I got, even though the image isn't close to being sharp...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3233/3149966364_7c86e274a4_o.jpg

[Bernoulli]

I tried to get the same Earthshine shot at the same time as you did but didn't do as well. I've never had much luck with it.

You may not have hit the mount, remember the moon moves almost 1% of its diameter every second. I don't know how long your exposure was, but anything over about 3 seconds becomes noticeable.

I don't know if the 400D has LiveView, but it will change your life for lunar photography.

Both of your shots are excellent.

By the way, I grew up just up the highway from you in Burnet.

[Adrena1in]

I don't know if the 400D has LiveView, but it will change your life for lunar photography.

No, it doesn't...it's the main reason I myself upgraded to the 450D.

Lovely shots there, a good earthshine pic around the new or waning crescent moon is something I've been intending to get for ages, but I doubt I'll ever manage it from my current site...there's *always* a haze low down in the sky making the seeing conditions quite poor. I like your images, even with the blurry bit on the first one.

[jblaschke]

Thanks for the kind words. The atmosphere was really hazy with high clouds, and dew started becoming problematic around 10 p.m. so seeing conditions were less than optimal. I had tracking on, which wasn't precise, but enough to hold the moon more or less still with the 20mm eyepiece in place. I really think the blur was from either my jiggling the scope or, perhaps, slight wind catching the camera strap (which I'd foolishly left dangling).

The Bahtinov mask really, really works well. I can't recommend it enough, although I'm sure it has its limits. I wish I'd have had it ready on Christmas Eve--the sky was stunningly clear here and seeing was the best I've had even with the terrible light pollution around here. Orion nebula was a stunning gossamer cloud and M37 was as awe-inspiring as any cluster I've ever seen. Alas, I couldn't manage focus on any of them. And seeing since then has been OK for visual, but nothing great.

I'd love for my XTi/400D to have live view, but sadly it doesn't. On the bright side, plans are afoot to get The Wife a 50D early in 2009, and if all goes well I'll get to make it my primary astrophotography camera.

[Celestron]

Nice !

[slitherjef]

Yeah, I grabbed several shots last night of different exposures. The best one was around 2.5 seconds, but then I started to get some bluring either from movement from my tripod, mirror slap or just the motion of the earth and moon rotating.

Nice shots you have there!

[Celestron]

Yeah, I grabbed several shots last night of different exposures. The best one was around 2.5 seconds, but then I started to get some bluring either from movement from my tripod, mirror slap or just the motion of the earth and moon rotating.

Nice shots you have there!

It should be your first two mentions but not the last two . For 2.5 secs you wont see any evidence on moon or earth movement unless your shooting at high power .

[jblaschke]

Interestingly (which I should've mentioned earlier, I guess) as I was setting up and spotting the moon in my scope, a jetliner heading in for a landing in San Antonio passed across the moon's face, perfectly silhouetted, from the top to bottom. The wings just extended past the edges of the moon's disc, and the landing lights really framed the image well.

Would've been an awesome picture, but alas, the camera wasn't set up yet.