Nice pictures HiTech! Wish I had the equipment for close-ups like that, but I have all of my money sunk into musical/recording equipment. I'd love to be able to take pictures through a microscope as well as a telescope.
My moon shots are more 'atmospheric' and 'moody' (and low resolution) in nature, with clouds and tree branches in the frame.
Actually the astronomy club did that one at a large observatory in Colorado... re-thinking back on it, I stand corrected on the 16" scope... that particular scope was used on a different moon shot and also by me to photograph Comet Hale-Bopp (twin tails). The photo was enhanced and I believe they even magnified it digitally since it looks like something you'd expect from a fly-by of a space probe! Tycho is about 85 km across and 4km deep... it's a seriously big crater, one that would extinguish life on earth!! They've had it published along with some other really nice photos of celestial objects. The first two pics are strictly my efforts. I've been lazy this whole summer regarding astronomy and have been using my small 3" refractor at home. A real POS compared to the professional optics. I was thinking of making the trip to the observatory and use the 7" APO last night on the full moon but later on, light clouds kept creeping in and out.
Question. Since Tycho is on the limb (edge) of the moon, and appears in all other photos at a severe angle, how did they manage to get a photo that appears to be looking straight down into the crater?
Actually the astronomy club did that one at a large observatory in Colorado... re-thinking back on it, I stand corrected on the 16" scope... that particular scope was used on a different moon shot and also by me to photograph Comet Hale-Bopp (twin tails). The photo was enhanced and I believe they even magnified it digitally since it looks like something you'd expect from a fly-by of a space probe! Tycho is about 85 km across and 4km deep... it's a seriously big crater, one that would extinguish life on earth!! They've had it published along with some other really nice photos of celestial objects. The first two pics are strictly my efforts. I've been lazy this whole summer regarding astronomy and have been using my small 3" refractor at home. A real POS compared to the professional optics. I was thinking of making the trip to the observatory and use the 7" APO last night on the full moon but later on, light clouds kept creeping in and out.
Actually, from what I read, Tycho is the big crater near the top of your picture which has the rays emanating from it (See the Wikipedia reference below).
Regarding the closeup, I believe it is a NASA photo taken by Lunar Orbiter 5 (rotate to compare). Also, the exact same picture is on Wikipedia.
I believe some further explanation is in order.
oh, oh! Plagiarism!!! I'm gonna have to speak to the atsronomy professor about this .... wouldn't be the first time with these kids! They have it on a small printed publication and it's assumed that they took the picture (as part of a group of others) when they were out west with a former astronomy professor who is now long gone. The pic is one that I simply saved in my folder as a reference. It does present a problem with a downward view like that, esp. since the moon doesn't tilt to that angle, I would assume. Now I wonder if it indeed Copernicus and not Tycho, or for that matter a "borrowed" picture!! I'm no lunar expert and barely can recite the various seas or "mares" on the moon, let alone be confident of crater names!
Tycho does have some emission rays stemming from it, but I think the crater you are referring to is Copernicus which is the upper one. This link might explain things better: MOON MAP
Actually, from what I read, Tycho is the big crater near the top of your picture which has the rays emanating from it (See the Wikipedia reference below).
Regarding the closeup, I believe it is a NASA photo taken by Lunar Orbiter 5 (rotate to compare). Also, the exact same picture is on Wikipedia.
I believe some further explanation is in order.
You are correct on both counts, Ron. After my last post, I dug out my moon charts from a Macmillian reference book. Tycho is the most visible crater on the moon when that orb is full. It is the one in the southern part that has the highly visible rays.... it makes the moon look much like a Naval orange.
The NASA photo also appears in this reference work, which says the photo was taken from a distance of about 135 miles above the moon.
I think you're correct. What threw me off was the position of Tycho (not to mention the fact that I'm not an astronomer). How did you get Tycho at that oblique angle? In every other picture of it that I can find, it is not near the moon's limb. I thought the view of the moon was essentially the same from any place on earth. That picture looks like it was taken from a spacecraft, maybe?
How did you get Tycho at that oblique angle? In every other picture of it that I can find, it is not near the moon's limb. I thought the view of the moon was essentially the same from any place on earth. That picture looks like it was taken from a spacecraft, maybe?
You are speaking of the two top photos I took? Honestly, it's just the moon floating in space according to "celestial physics". I simply opened up the observatory doors, positioned the scope and turned on the camera! In fact it was about last year at this time (mid August) that I took them, so last night's full moon may show the same through binocs. I think I will break out the small telescope tonight if skies remain clear to confirm it. I'd have to ask an astronomy professor to confirm if that low crater is indeed Tycho.... I based my info. from a moon map. If it's the up-close bottom photo you are questioning about, then yes, I too believe it's spacecraft based and here I assumed the students took it while in Colorado. Some of those large optic scopes can take some pretty impressive images.
Now on a similar note, I did manage to snap this photo using a 14" Schmitt Cassegrain and a CCD imager. Have you ever wondered what the "man in the moon" looks like?
Not funny? His comment didn't bother me. If you Google under images for "Bat Boy" you'll come up with pages of that photo and many renditions of it. It's hilarious! I like this one .... look at the shape of the mouth!!
Not funny? His comment didn't bother me. If you Google under images for "Bat Boy" you'll come up with pages of that photo and many renditions of it. It's hilarious! I like this one .... look at the shape of the mouth!!
[...img...]
Actually, (there's that word again) here's the real scoop on Tycho. On the chart, the latitude marking are from -90 being due south as we see the moon, and -0 would be the moon's equator.
Tonight, in my hemisphere, the moon will be as full as it gets this month. A good time to see Tycho.
I posted the moonquadrant picture on an astronomy forum. Turns out that the picture was inverted relative to the "normal" view. I remember that's what some telescopes do. The "normal" view is posted below. The crater in question (now near the top of the picture) was identified as Pythagoras, not Tycho.
Doh! Excellent detective work Ron, I completely forgot the scope does indeed invert images unless an image erector is installed, which wasn't when I took those pics. I can't believe that little but important fact escaped me!! Boy oh boy, you had me looking at a moon map trying to figure it out and what surprises me is how identical things look between the northern and southern lunar hemispheres. I'm going to mention this to an astronomy prof next time I run across him. Now that we've seemed to put this issue to bed, how about I post a close-up photo of a black hole galaxy I located that's approx. 800 trillion lightyears away?
Well I didn't make it out to the big scope last evening, but I did one better! Was travelling home from fueling up my vehicle when I chanced upon a trashpile with a Bushnell telescope thrown on top of it. It's an 80mm refractor with an alt-azimuth mount. It has an image erector, moon filter, and a barlow lense. It needs some TLC in that screws are loose or missing and the tripod needs tightening up. The optics need a good proper cleaning too but it does work and I peeked at the moon thru it. I'm going to keep it as a smaller scope that will get piggybacked to my larger one that I hope to buy someday (or find in the trash). I'm awaiting to see if a college near me is going to dump their 8'" reflector that needs the mirror cleaned or either recoated.
In this part of the country, we occasionally see those promising piles of junk, often including TV's, stereo's, etc.
Usually, those piles are the result of someone having skipped out on paying their rent, and the landlord can legally "curb" their belongings. If this is the case in your area also, be vewy vewy carefwel when poking around in someone else's junk. Your "junk" might well be his "treasure" and he's come back for it.