January 15, 2004

Gassendi Compared

Image Credit: John Sussenbach and NASA Lunar Orbiter IV

Gassendi Compared The advent of webcams and image compositing and enhancing software has given amateur astronomers with modest size instruments the ability to acquire lunar images that equal or surpass the very best professional images. Now amateurs are pushing up against the resolution of space craft imaging. In this comparison of the lunar crater Gassendi, Dutch astroimager John Sussenbach notes that his image has a resolution of about 0.3 seconds of arc, which is both better than theoretical for an 11" and comparable with the Lunar Orbiter image. Gassendi (diameter 110 km) is another floor-fractured crater, like Posidonius and Petavius. The crater has been shallowed by floor uplift and lava flooding. Technical Details: Left image taken with a C11 and 2x Barlow plus Toucam Pro webcam on March 13, 2003. John stacked 150 of 1800 frames. Right image from multi-million dollar NASA spacecraft in lunar orbit. Related Links: Sussenbach's Digital Astroimaging Using Webcam Gassendi the scientist Yesterday's LPOD: First and Last Tomorrow's LPOD: The End of Lunar Studies

Author & Editor: Charles A. Wood

 

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