Sunrise at Lunar Crater Walther
Posted: 12 October 2013
The observatory was opened Friday, 11 October 2013, at 1811 MST, 76°F. The sky was clear. At 1817 MST, viewed Mercury, then Saturn, then Venus, 83X. I then slewed the 8" LX200-ACF to the moon. Seeing was not very good. I began looking for a crater along the terminator that would make an interesting video as the sun rose at its location. I finally chose crater Walther.
Every 30 minutes from 1830 MST to 2130 MST, I did a 30 second HD video recording of crater Walther using the D7000 DSLR camera, 1/200sec, ISO 3200, at prime focus + 3X TeleXtender. Seeing improved slightly over the three hour period. In between recordings, I viewed the crater in the camera viewfinder. I also did some terrestrial viewing using the 2X nightscope. Once I saw a small rabbit eating a snack.
This image of crater Walther is a single frame from the 2130 MST video:
This video (animated GIF) shows the progression of sunlight across crater Walther every 30 minutes over the three hour period:
I took a final look at the moon, 83X, at 2134 MST, and then began closing up for the night.
The observatory was closed at 2142 MST, 54°F.
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