Photo of the Month – Capturing Lunar Magic

We are a multi-talented workforce, a community that is driven by excellence, to bring creativity and innovation to everything we do. SPOKE continues its ‘Photo of the Month’ to celebrate the creativity and talent amongst our people.

Each month, we will showcase inspiring photography that has captured our imagination and tells a compelling visual story, taken by our colleagues from around the GFG network. From landscapes and intricate details to spontaneous moments of life, we want to celebrate moments of beauty and inspiration. So, if you believe you have what it takes, have a keen eye for detail and a passion for visual storytelling, we invite you to submit your best work for a chance to be featured in our ‘Photo of the Month’ section. Email us at spoke@gfgalliance.com

May’s Photo of the Month, by Richard Guest, Quality Manager at LIBERTY Steel UK (Engineering Bar in Wednesbury)

The photo

Get ready to be moonstruck! Richard’s latest triumph is a breathtaking capture of the Waxing Moon, illuminated at 39.1% illuminated Waxing Moon taken on 26th April, 2023, taken with a Celestron Evolution 8HD Edge telescope with a ZWO 2600 colour astronomical camera cooled to -15C

In the photo – towards the top of the Moon at the terminator (where the sunlit moon meets shadow), the Sea of Tranquillity can be seen. This is where Apollo 11 landed and Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon’s surface back in 1969.

But let’s dive into the fascinating process that brought this image to life. After carefully setting up his telescope and zeroing in on the Moon’s position in the night sky, Richard used a planetary photography program called Firecapture. Its mission? Sharpening the focus on the lunar surface and ensuring a jaw-dropping shot – this is free to download online. With some fine-tuning of exposure and gain settings, he hit the sweet spot, ready to capture the Moon in all its glory. Richard patiently recorded a staggering 1,000 individual frames onto his trusty computer.

Richard used a program called Autostakert to sift through the frames and handpick the cream of the crop. Only the absolute best frames were selected, carefully stacked together to unveil the final masterpiece.

But Richard wasn’t done just yet, to refine the stacked image further, he used to a program known as Registax. With its magical touch, the program unveiled intricate details and breathed life into the Moon’s colors and texture.

If you want to get into astrophotography, the Moon is the ideal starting point. In this case you don’t need an expensive telescope to give decent results. If you have a telescope, see if you can purchase a mobile phone adapter. You can mount your smart phone and use the camera to view through the eyepiece.

I bought one from Celestron and this is where I started my journey into this hobby!

Tips for the beginners

Imagine being a child with a curiosity for science and a longing to explore the mysteries of the universe. That’s exactly how Richard’s incredible journey as an astrophotographer began. At the tender age of 10, he stumbled upon a second-hand telescope, and that’s when his adventure took off!

Richard explains that he’s not in an Astronomy Club but is self-taught and has picked up helpful hints from YouTube. He suggests that beginners should never say never, they should practice a lot and this will be rewarded with stunning photos. He suggests starting off with a good pair of 10X50 binoculars as you’ll be amazed at what you will see with these including the Galilean moons. Richard closes by saying that despite there being so much wrong in the world today, all of us in the Northern Hemisphere can still look up at the night sky, see the same stars and enjoy their magnificence.

These are some of my favourite things...

1. C2022E3ZTF – The 50,000 year old Green comet discovered in 2022, made its closest approach to the Earth on February on 1^st February 2023. This photograph was taken when the comet was at 42 million Km away just after midnight. The green colour formed from diatomic Carbon and Cyanogen

This comet would have been seen our skies by our Neanderthal ancestors! It makes you wonder what the Earth will be like when it returns in another 50,000 years!

2. The Dolphin Head Nebula  – I always thought this image produced by other photographers was fake!  Until I took the picture!. Here the nebula resides in the constellation of Canis Major near to the star Sirius. A very faint nebula at 5000 light years from Earth covering slightly more sky than the full Moon

3. The California Nebula – Located in the constellation of Perseus this Hydrogen alpha nebula resembling the American state is situated at 1000 light years from Earth. Processed to reflect the Hubble Palette I think this image looks like a giant wave, in a stormy sea, in our Milky Way Galaxy.

For more of Richard’s photography and updates, visit his website – www.bksastronomy.co.uk