Rian-Pascal Bergen

Psalm 111:1-10

Moon (Ina Crater), Taken 20211015-20201016

This image pushes my telescope to its limits... It uses my most powerful telescope with a 2.5 times Barlow, kind of like a magnifying glass. It uses my camera with the smallest pixel sizes. All to capture a single crater that NASA says isn’t visible from Earth. Is it my best image? No. Is it in the top 5? Definitely. Obviously, this is an image of the moon, but the main target is actually just a single crater, located at the center of this image. It took me quite a few attempts just to get this image. I even posted one of these attempts at an earlier stage here. It wasn’t easy. The atmosphere had to cooperate, and my equipment had to cooperate. On top of this, the moon had to be at a specific phase for the shadows to give at least a little bit of detail. This only came around 1-2 times a month. If the weather didn’t cooperate, I had to wait another 15 days. If the equipment or atmosphere didn’t cooperate, another 15 days. This took a lot of work! That is why it is in my top 5.

This the video where NASA mentioned that the crater may not be visible from Earth. The exact quote is at 2:29.

This video documents the attempt by a YouTuber that goes by AstroBiscuit. He uses a slightly different set of equipment from a more light-polluted area.

All that to say this: Even if someone tells you that you can’t achieve something, and even if in trying it anyways, you don’t succeed, DON’T GIVE UP! Sure, it may take you multiple attempts, or what you are trying to do may actually be impossible, but, the journey you take in trying will teach you more than the destination will.

Equipment

Telescope/Lens: Celestron EdgeHD 8 at f/25

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI290MM

Guiding Scope: N/A

Guiding Camera: N/A

Mounts: Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro

Filters: ZWO 31mm LRGB Filters

Accessories: ZWO EFW 8x31mm, Celestron 2" Luminos Barlow Lens (2.5x), Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox, Astrozap AstroStrap 8" Dew Heater, Astrozap Flexi-Shield 8" Dew Shield

Software: FireCapture, AutoStakkert, RegiStax 6, Adobe Photoshop 2021

Storage Devices and Computers used are not mentioned here.

Location, Weather, and Acquisition

All data was taken from my Bortel 4 backyard. Location was within a 15-mile radius of Comer, Georgia (USA) (34.0637° N, 83.1254° W). Weather data was not recorded. Some Acquisition Data may be missing.

Date	Temperature	Humidity	Average Moon Phase
2021-10-15 - 2020-10-16	N/A	N/A	Waxing Gibbous (76.3%)