Question for the lunar imagers

[DEnc]

How do lunar imagers having big-aperture rigs find their targets? Is there a software that can report the RA/Dec coordinates of a specific lunar coordinate? I can appreciate that it will change moment-by-moment, but mounts have lunar tracking--is there a way to point as well as track?

Thanks,

David

[chris_g]

How do lunar imagers having big-aperture rigs find their targets? Is there a software that can report the RA/Dec coordinates of a specific lunar coordinate? I can appreciate that it will change moment-by-moment, but mounts have lunar tracking--is there a way to point as well as track?

Thanks,

David

Hi David,

I use Stellarium and its telescope control plugin. My mounts are Sky Watcher, and the HC also has capability built in for solar system objects. It would be helpful if we knew what equipment you use. You can go into your profile and update your signature so you don't have to put it in every time

Clear Skies,
Chris

[DEnc]

Thanks Chris, I'm making plans for the future, I have no trouble tracking and imaging the moon with my 4" Refractor! I'm curious if there's a software for pointing to a specific lunar coordinate, rather than the moon in general.

[JayTee]

It's not so much having the ability to slew to a particularly small lunar feature, it' 's more an issue of goto accuracy! The moon is 30' in diameter, and half of that obviously is 15'. Most very accurate slews fall between 15' and 30' of the center of the FOV. This only puts you within a half lunar diameter of your desired feature. In these terms when you are imaging at 5600mm -- not very accurate! I find my intended lunar features by using an atlas and the shortest FL I currently have available. I then step up the FL once I've located the feature I intend to image.

Not what you were hoping for, but it's the best I got!

[DEnc]

Thanks JT, I imagined that's the best that could be done--using a spotting scope to get in the vicinity. On the plus side, I'm sure that sort of navigating provides a deep dive into lunar features, probably very rewarding in itself!

As for atlases, I posted this question on CN too, and one of the responses noted an online atlas that looks pretty amazing, Virtual Moon Atlas:--

https://www.ap-i.net/avldoc/UK_Doc_AtLun.html

[DEnc]

Well, here's a nice software solution to the problem!

Apparently you can sync the mount with Virtual Moon Atlas (VMA) and navigate to lunar features within the VMA display: center the FOV on a well known lunar feature; select that feature in the VMA display; sync; find and select the desired target in VMA; and slew with the app's GoTo function. This is described in the section " How to find an unknown lunar formation...":--

http://www.astrosurf.com/avl/V35/doc/UK ... .html#goto