The Trifecta!

One evening while picking up some Chinese food from a local establishment, I noticed something I hadn't seen in quite a while:  three of our solar system neighbors nicely grouped together!

Here's a shot, taken with my iPhone, of Venus (top), a waxing crescent moon (bottom right) and Jupiter (bottom left).

Clockwise from top: Venus, waxing crescent Moon, and Jupiter.

It's So Bright!!

Without a doubt, the worst time to take a picture of the moon is when it's full.  And that's what I chose to do.  In the middle of the night, it's like looking at a lit light bulb with one eye open.  One eye is fine, while the other has a long lingering afterimage.

This prime focus image was taken with my Canon Digital Rebel hanging off the visual back of my Meade ETX 125.

Meade ETX 125, Canon Digital Rebel - Full moon

That's one big moon.  I wasn't able to fit the whole thing in one frame.

The LX200 and the Moon

After I took a couple of pictures of Albireo with the LX200 I decided to try take a picture of our closest celestrial body, the moon.  It was big, it was bright, and it seemed like an easy target.

As it turns out, taking a picture of the moon is easy.  Taking a good picture isn't (for a total novitiate).  My first few images weren't entirely awful, but they sure weren't great either.

LX200, DSLR and the moon.

Acquiring the moon, framing it and setting the timer on the camera wasn't a problem.  Focusing was the trick.  This was the best I could do on my first run.