To date, my solo efforts have been about 98% deep sky and 2% solar system. And while I enjoy the diversity of deep sky targets, pursuing them from my suburban backyard is a challenge due to light pollution, the Moon, and not having a lot of nights that are completely free of clouds. So, to be able to spend more time pursuing this wonderful hobby, I decided to start shooting more solar system targets. Their brightness cuts through light pollution and with a little persistence, you can even capture them when you are under partly cloudy skies.
This 43-panel Moon mosaic was not planned when I set up for the evening. It turned out to be more of a whim to see if the Moon Mosaic plug-in for FireCapture would work...which it did wonderfully. My
son, who is a prolific planetary imager, has been mentoring me and checking me out on all the associated planetary software (FireCapture, AutoStakkert, WinJUPOS, and Microsoft ICE).
As a noobie, I'm thrilled with the final result...but I definitely overexposed the crater edges (see Proclus...crater near Mare Crisium (top right dark area)). But this first attempt was more about learning the process and not the final product, so I'm excited about how simple everything was to use and looking forward to more solar system imaging.
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