Imaging The Moon and Jupiter with a Celestron NexStar 4SE and the Astromania SGCMOS Series Telescope CMOS Camera

 Though the skies were mucky due to forest fire smoke and a first quarter+ Moon I needed to get some tests done with my new small pier for one of my telescopes, in this case a Celestron NexStar 4SE SCT.

Since this was a test of polar alignment I decided to use a focal reducer and my small Astromania SGCMOS Series Telescope CMOS Camera (link to it on Amazon) to do some quick imaging of the Moon and Jupiter. Please note that because of the focal reducer the magnification is reduced from what it would be if I did not use the focal reducer. Next time I will remove the reducer and post comparative images then. 

Also, instead of taking a single shot, I used the video mode and captured from 500 to 1,000 frames which I then ran through PIPP and AS!3 software, which I had it select only the top 10% of the sharpest frames and apply sharpening through. This method works great for bright objects like the Moon and planets, as you will see.

Here are the results:

The Moon

Five Apollo missions were sent this this portion of the Moon: Apollo 11, 14, 15, 16 and 17. 

The darker patches are Mare Imbrium (far left of center), Mare Serentatis (left of center), Mare Crisium (upper right), Mare Tranquillitatis (just right of center), Mare Fecunditatis (far right of center) and Mare Nectaris (lower right).

The southern regions of the Moon including Tycho and Clavius.

The region around the interesting and giant crater Copernicus (just down from center)

Jupiter

Given that I was using a focal reducer which introduced some abberations and reduced the size of Jupiter on the camera sensor, I was still able to tease out some of the larger cloud bands. The Great Red Spot was not visible at the time of this image. Maybe next time...