If you want to obtain images showing the very finest lunar detail possible with your equipment in any given observing conditions then you have to put in just a little extra effort and go for a more sophisticated approach than taking single frames. Most of this chapter is given over to describing how you might do that. Let me first, though, show you how to get impressive results by adopting a very simple approach with a piece of equipment you might already have and have never thought of putting to astronomical use …

THE MOON AND YOUR DOMESTIC VIDEO CAMERA

Take a look at Figure 5.1. It shows the great crater Plato and part of the Montes Alpes. I took this photograph using my own telescope and a mid-priced domestic video ‘palmcorder’ of early 1990s vintage that recorded onto its own miniature videotape. I re-recorded the footage onto VHS tape in my 1980s-vintage domestic VCR, played it back on my 1980s-vintage television and paused the tape at a moment of good seeing. I then photographed the TV screen using my old film camera. Using modern digital devices at each of these stages would undoubtedly produce superior results.

The seeing was very ordinary that night and yet I estimate the resolution of the image to be approaching the 1 arcsecond level. Figure 5.2 shows another part of the Moon, videod in the same session showing similar resolution.