Stack of hi-res images of NORTH lunar pole, for recognizing polar craters under various lighting, for LCROSS.

[Shore Lab]

Slightly Cropped Stack of hi-res images of NORTH lunar pole 2 days
after January 2, 2009 LCROSS Exercise, for recognizing/mapping polar
craters under various lighting.

File name of posted image : CKitting_200901040116StackN.jpg
Name of observer : Dr. Christopher Kitting, Cal State U. East Bay,
with assistance of Dr. Rick Nolthenius, Cabrillo College.
Email address of observer : chris....@csueastbay.edu
Aperture of telescope : 12” = 305 mm
Focal length of telescope : 3048mm at prime focus (as here).
Customized Meade LX200GPS 12” SCT at Peninsula Astronomical Society
Oak Ridge Observatory dome.
Type of camera used : Meade DSI iii Pro (black and white)
Camera detector dimensions 10.2mm x 8.3mm
Astronomik Infra Red blocking filter.
Image capture software: “Nebulosity” 1.8 on Mac.
cropped slightly to 95% remaining in each dimension.
Exposure information : 0.5 fps, 0.025 second (1/40 s) at maximum std.
gain.
Imaging at 3048mm focal length, f/10.
Sharpest 14 frames (of ~40) stacked via “Nebulosity” software.
(0.2 arcsec per pixel)
Mild Laplacian sharpening with Nebulosity software and Smart
Sharpening with Photoshop. Then jpg compression for high quality
10/12 (for 500kb file).
Time and date of exposure : 01:15- 01:16 UT, on January 4, 2009
(UT).
(2 days after Mauna Kea etc. began their imaging of S and N poles on
this project.)
Observatory location: Santa Cruz Mountains, above Saratoga, CA ,
between San Francisco and Monterey Bays.
37° 12.27’ N Latitude 
 122° 03.29' W Longitude
Elevation: 750 meters (2440 feet) above sea level. Good atmospheric
stability.
North polar region, with isolated sunlit peaks, sharper (in the North
targeted area for registering stack) than single frames. The fine,
parallel, horizontal lines near the north limb appear in sharpest
individual frames, rather than being artifacts of stacking atmospheric
distortions.