Galileo's Moon

I have to say I feel somewhat special when I think of what it must have been like for Galileo to have first seen the craters on the moon. I felt like that last night when I first pointed my scope at the moon. I could not believe how clear the craters were. The next step was of course to put the camera on!!! :-D

I found out pretty quick that the moon moves pretty fast! Without tracking on I was having a hard time keeping the moon in the viewfinder. Also I think it was moving fast enough to make many of my shots blurred!

I finally aligned the scope and set it to track and got something decent.

It is interesting how spectacular it felt to get this shot! I only wish I could have controlled the vibration just a bit better. I decided it would be nice to try something with a bit more in it and threw on the focal reducer to get the full Moon.

I really like this shot. I took some creative liberty with the white balance and color, because, you know, that is what an artist does!  After all I am not working for NASA out of my backyard!  ;-)

Again, I can only imagine what Galileo must have thought when he first peered through a telescope at the moon.  It really was such a thrill even though I know what I am looking at!  This Astrophotography thing is way cool!

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