Early October Moon

In my part of the world I have had the worse summer for astrophotography, lots of rain and cloudy nights. The few clear nights happens either during the period of 3 days before or 3 days after a full Moon or on a night that I could not stay up late (I am old and need my sleep). Also the summer temperature and humidity caused poor seeing so what’s the use in trying.

However last night I had cool temperatures (55 F 12.8C) and lower humidity (75% when I started) and good seeing. My main goal was to work on polar alignment which resulted in a Good alignment, not Excellent but good enough.

I first rule of astrophotography is “When the Moon is out – Shoot the Moon” So I used the following setting and shot 25 images to stack in RegiStax, Canon T7i, Sigma 150-600 mm lens, (shot at 600 mm), ISO 1600, 1/2500 second, f/6.3 shot on 10/3/2020 at 8:58 PM just after the Moon cleared the trees. This image is cropped some since I shot at 600 mm. I hope you enjoy my first image of the Fall/Winter photography season.