Tag Archives: moon

Image

Total Lunar Eclipse – 26 May 2021

Total Lunar Eclipse - 26 May 2021

This image combines 50 x 1″ exposures, ISO 800, obtained with my CANON 5D Mark III attached at primary focus of my Skywatcher Black Diamond 80mm f600mm (F/7.5) during the Total Lunar Eclipse on Wednesday 26 May 2021, between 9:00pm and 9:04pm, Sydney local time.

The frames were manually aligned with Photoshop, then extracted as new frames to Lynkeos, that did the fine alignment. Drizzling x2 was also used. Then the combined image was taken to Photoshop, where the colour, highlights/shadows, and contrast were tuned. This got only the image of the eclipsed moon.

Additionally, I combined the full 266 x 1″ images I took during totality using Siril to get the stellar background.

They two combined frames (eclipsed moon + stars) were combined with Photoshop with a bit of extra tuning to get a nice background.

The image taken at 9:03pm was used as reference for the alignment.

All the data were taken during the 4 hours “ONLINE” event “Conversaciones astronómicas bajo la luna eclipsada” that I organised with the “Red Andaluza de Astronomía” (RAdA), “Agrupación Astronómica de Córdoba” (AAC), “Asociación de Lengua y Cultura Española” (ALCE) de Australia and the “Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific” (SRAP-IEAP), that was followed by many schools in Spain.

I also want to thank Alicia Lozano (RAdA), Héctor Socas-Navarro (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias), María Ribes (Universidad de Alicante) and Alberto Aparici (Instituto de Física Corpuscular de Valencia) for the conversation they had during the event while I was taking this images.

Full resolution image in My Flickr.

Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University).

Pink SuperMoon (or not)

Pink SuperMoon (or not)

Image of the (not) Pink (you won’t see the difference) Super Moon obtained from our backyard in Sydney on Tuesday 27th April 2021, at 8:30pm local time.

This image combines 50 frames, 35ms each, obtained with a ZWO 1600MM-Pro at -20C, gain 100, using a ultra-narrow (3.5nm thick) H-alpha Baader filter.

The telescope used was a refractor Skywatcher Black Diamond 80mm, with a x0.75 focal reducer (effective focal length of 430mm) on a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 Pro mount, everything controlled with the ZWO ASIAir.

The images (not corrected for darks or flatfield) were aligned and stacked using the Lynkeos software, also using the x2 Drizzle. The combined FITS image was then converted into TIF using Fits Liberator considering an Asinh scaling. Further adjustments with the contrast, shadows/highlights, and smart sharpening was performed in Photoshop.

Credit of the image: Luke López-Planells & Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO-MQ).

A high-resolution version of this image is available in MyFlickr.

The Phases of the Moon

The phases of the Moon

Combination of 8 images taken during January and March 2019 showing different phases of the Moon.

These images, with many more not shown here, are part of a educational exercise conducted with my son, Luke, who was 6 years old then (Year 1), and who actually took all the photos.

Each image combines ~150 frames, all taken with my Skywatcher Black Diamond 80mm, f/7.5, using my CANON EOS 5D Mark III at primary focus, from Freshwater, Sydney.

The data were stacked using the free Lynkeos software, and then processed with Photoshop to increase the shadows/highlights, correct colour, smart sharpen for getting a better contrast of the craters, and luminosity.

One of these images has been used in the article published in ABC Science today discussing the discovery of water in the surface of the Moon by the SOFIA observatory.

Credit: Luke López Planells (Year 1, Manly West Primary School) & Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University).

Full resolution image in my Flickr.

Tonight’s “supermoon” on ABC Science

Today I’ve been interviewed in ABC Science about the “Supermoon” that we can enjoy tonight, 7th May 2020. For this we have used some of the images of the moon that my son and me have been taking during the last year.

I want to thank Genelle Weule for the excellent questions and for her great interest about astronomy and astrophotography.

Pocket guide to the Moon

It’s 50 years! since Humans first put our feet on the Moon. For celebrating this achievement, ABC released a special “Stargazing ABC” show, Moon and Beyond. Hosted by Professor Brian Cox and Julia Zemiro, and with the participation of Greg Quicke and Prof. Tamara Davis, the show revisited what the Apollo mission meant, imagine future space exploration, checked what takes to become an astronaut, and investigated Australia’s space agency.

I was invited to be part of the live audience for this show, that was recorded on the 24th of June. It has been my very first time attending a TV show recording… that was quite interesting. If you watch the show you’ll see me from time to time sit in the very first row 🙂

In parallel to all of this, ABC has also released a “Pocket guide to the Moon“. Narrated by my friend and colleague Prof. Fred Watson, it is a guided tour of the Apollo sites, stunning lava plains and craters that dot the lunar surface.

Both my son and me have participated in the “Pocket guide to the Moon” providing some of the Moon images that are included there, as during this year we have been compiling many shots of the Moon in different phases with my telescope. And we both are in the credits, of course!

Luke was very excited about it, and so was I!