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Casatus & Klaproth

Casatus & Klaproth on the Southern Highlands Casatus & Klaproth on the Southern Highlands ©2017 Frederick Steiling
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Published image
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Target Information
Main Target Designation(s) Casatus, Klaproth
Exposures
L-filtered monochrome 205 x 7.610ms at 59% gain
Video source 3% of 212" video at 32 fps (avg)
Capture resolution 1280x960
Date(s) of acquisition 07May2017 at 00:29
Location Defiance, MO
Equipment
Imager ZWO ASI120MM
Telescope/Lens Celestron C14 XLT SCT
Focal Length 7820mm (f/22)
Mount Celestron CGE Pro
Focuser GSO Crayford
Accessories
Focusing Manual
Magnifiers Orion 2x "Shorty" Barlow
Software
Acquisition FireCapture 2.4
Guiding None
Processing AutoStakkert 3, Registax 6, PixInsight 1.8

Though a high moon was in place, I was thrilled to have finally been graced with some clear skies!  The combination made for a great opportunity to get acquainted with the Astronomical Society of Eastern Missouri's (ASEM) "new" C14 setup.  After spending a little time getting familiar with the focal length against my planetary imaging setup, I landed on a pairing of the scope with my 2x barlow to take a look at a slice of the fascinating lunar southern highlands.

This image features Casatus and Klaproth, 2 smaller sized craters bending around the southern face of our lunar companion.  Measuring 111km and 119km in diameter, respectively, the craters are separated by a thin crest, and each feature high surrounding walls and small craterlets littering their very flat floors.

On this test run of ASEM's C14 telescope, I'm fairly pleased with the current collimation/alignment, and had an interesting time battling the typical poor atmospheric seeing of the region.  The resolving power of the huge 356mm aperture becomes apparent in this image, and leaves me hoping for a steadier night and a little tweak to the optics to really put it to work.  But until then, we can enjoy this tiny neighboring field of view on one of the most interesting areas of the moon.

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