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@philjay What do you use to get the mosaic? I was planning to use CdC for any mosaics I wanted to attempt.

Ah, so a 4/3 rds sensor should give you an easy full disc on the 81 so a barlow will help there. I always liked imaging lunar with the mak 180 lovely crisp images and a full disc with an aps chip only took 4 to 5 panes in a mosaic.

@philjay Thanks Phil. My camera is a 21mp 4/3rds sensor with 3.30m pixels, apparently quite good at planetary imaging so I'm hoping it will get me some good lunar shots. I've had a go at a wide shot with the un-barlowed GT81 which turned out ok. I'll get the Mak set up to hold my hub n stuff and have a go with that.

I,m downsizing, I said I,m getting rid of stuff, I said Yeah right I went to an auction house the other week to put some unsold stock into auction, they had a viewing of the next auction on at the same time as I was there, Mistake 1. Mistake 2 was me "I will just have a look around, I wont leave a bid on anything". Mistake 3, left a commission bid on a cosmetically good but optically poor ST120. Went home, didnt think anymore of it then wifey mentioned the other morning- "I thought you were submitting stuff at teh auction house not bidding, what have you won now?" "Err its only £30 me duck, couldnt resist it could I?" Wifey - 🙄 So, I collected a SW ST120 which works OK but had horrendous mold on the outside and inside of the objectve. I cleaned the mold off with lens fluid but the mold has had a lovely meal of the coatings. It works but doesnt look very nice but will work a treat with my Mintron video camera which I have resurrected. I used to use an ST120 and Mintron when I got back into astro 15 years ago and loved it, so hoping to have a go again. What I want to have a bash at is polishing the worst of the poor coatings off with jewellers rouge very carefully, purely as an experiment as I havent polished lenses before only mirror blanks, many years ago. I tested the scope briefly the other night and yep it works OK for a short focus achro, heavy CA which is typical of these but this doesnt make a great deal of difference with a mono video camera.

Sale pending

Hi Stu, both scopes will perform well, the gt81 for wider shots and the mak for higher mag. I,m not a fan of barlowing on lunar, never seem to get sharp enough images for my liking, I prefer prime focus but thats just me. Not sure what size chip your cam has but bare in mind it will only cover a small area of the lunar surface in the mak, a bit more in the 81 due to differing fls. Ok you can barlow it in the 81 but extra glass means more stuff in the imaging train that can reduce sharpness. I used to image lunar with a 180 mak and qhy planetary cam and the prime focus images were crisp but a lot of mosaicing was required to cover larger areas, but that was fun to do.

Doesn't sound very good for the optics

Thanks Phil 👍

Looks like a nice rig. Obama would go all Gangnam over it.

Proclus, very high albedo with rays, it stands out well as the sun gets higher

Hi folks. I intend on making the most out of our favourite imaging buzz kill this year so just need a bit of advice. I'd like to get some nice detailed images and the choice I have is the GT81 with a 2.5x powermate or the LX85 6" Mak paired with my Altair 269CPROTEC. Any advice on which setup to go for to get the sharpest results?

Great images Phil. I like the comparison of the phases. I really should look at the moon more, what's the bright crater near Mare Crisium?

stunning

Ta chaps. Quite pleased with the 17th as Rupes Recta is there if you zoom in

Continuing my clear out of stuff. This was acquired some time back for a project that never and I doubt will ever come to fruition. In good overall condition, just a bit grubby. 1 plastic wing nut broken but that can be replaced easily with a standard wing nut. No accessory tray. £40 collect I am in Derby all this weekend (20th and 21st April) at the Conference Centre on London Road so if anyone is interested I can stick it in the van and you can pick up from there.

I like your moon shots. It’s interesting to see the phase shifts too.

You get lovely crater detail on the Lunar shots Phil 👍🏼 I thought there may have been a 'Lunar X' on show on todays image, but it looks like you just missed it : maybe it was visible literally in between your two images.

Oh and just for laughs, heres last night and tonights side by side to illustrate phase shift

What are the chances, 2 nights on the trot with a telescope, something odd is going on 😱 Same set up as yesterday, Towa 339 80mm F15 Achro, Olympus OM D EM 1 at 1/125s, 90 subs. PIPP, AS3, R6, PSP. Click and click to zoom in

Looking good there Phil

Hi folks. It's not the most detailed report as I didn't bring my lunar map with me and my phone signal made searching for information too much of a PITA. I set up in the "darkest" corner of the hotel carpark using my car to try and shield me from the floodlights so not ideal. But the sky was lovely and clear and the 30mph winds from the previous day had gone. I set the LX85 M6 up on the Twilight with a Baader 1.25" prism. I didn't get the zoom EP out but spent a very enjoyable hour scanning up and down the terminator with the Panoptic 24mm and Ethos 13mm. The amount of detail was amazing, especially on the Lunar Apennines (I think I'm right with that). Being able to see shadows in craters and light reflecting on the opposite side really puts a smile on my face. Possibly another clear night tonight so I'll download some maps before the hotel WiFi is out of range. So hopefully I can put names to more features. The picture was taken with night mode on my phone so it was considerably darker then it looks.

That's rather nice Phil 👍

Lovely Phil. Interesting reflective crater edge to the lower left of Mare Crisium!