Tonight I got my first shot of the moon with the D50 and the C8. This was about an hour before sunset. Aiden was my big helper while I assembled the telescope. Then he stood on the stool and looked through the eyepiece at the moon.

The number of craters visible in the high-resolution image is really amazing. Central peak uplifts are visible in many of the larger craters. However, the focus was not tight enough in general to pick up the terrace edges (although you can make out traces here and there). You can click on the image below to see the full-sized photograph, but be prepared to wait! The big photo is 2.3MB at a whopping 2900×2900.

You can see some severe vignette in the corners from the 1.25″ universal T-adapter. The photo is actually a composite of two separate shots because the moon did not fit in the camera’s image sensor at this high magnification.

Telescope: Celestron C8, FL 2032mm, f/10
Camera: Nikon D50, ISO 800, 1/1000s

1st quarter moon in daylight