Eclipse of the Moon, February 2008
Scope: AT66ED refractor, EFL=400mm (f/6)
Mount: Celestron AS-GT
Camera: Canon Eos 350D (3.3"/pixel) 2 sec exposure, auto white balance
Guiding: None
Imaged on: Feb 20th, 22:35 near mid eclipse.
Imaged from: Sidewalk in front of the Chapters bookstore during OAFs sidewalk astronomy in Kanata, ON.
Processing in MaxIm DL/CCD v4.5: Started with Canon raw 12bit file, Unsharp Mask, gamma stretch 0.75, half size and crop.
The above approximates the view from a small telescope. Focusing was tricky without a laptop or live preview, I adjusted the fine focus knob after reviewing each test shot on the built-in LCD and iterated to about the best spot. I did not have a cable release handy so I used the self-timer to trigger the exposure. Coming in from the cold (it was about -18 C) I realized that I should have also enabled the mirror lockup feature to reduce vibrations, next time! This is my first image taken thru the compact AT66ED refractor that I won in the 2007 SCT-User Imaging Contest, what a great little scope!
Full resolution cropped image