Time & Date: 0h 0m 9/27/09 UT
Telescope: Meade LXD75 SN6
Camera: Meade DSI Pro III
Filter: Orion Imaging Skyglow Filter (for IR cut)
Exposures: 30x0.0005sec, saved as FITS
Guide scope: None
Software: Envisage, Photoshop, Registax 4

You know you’re desperate to try out a new camera when you’re shooting the moon in daylight between gaps in the clouds. ? This is the first test image taken with my new DSI Pro III. Despite the awful conditions I wanted to get the camera set up on my telescope and at least test how it may work as a lunar and planetary imager. Unlike the DSI I and II series, the III series uses a progressively scanned CCD rather than interlaced and that should make it a better high resolution imager and this test bears that out. The field of view on my SN6 is almost tall enough to capture the entire moon in one frame, but it’s just a smidgen short, s I had to shoot it in two frames. I was really pleased that 5/10,000 second exposures were sooth and even and even though this was shot about 45 minutes before sunset in a bright blue sky the depth was plenty good enough to give excellent contrast. The focus was a tad soft (I was in a hurry with no stars to use my Bahtinov mask) but not so bad that mild wavelets in Registax couldn’t fix it. I can’t wait to try this under ‘normal’ conditions, let alone for deep sky imaging and photometry.

-John