Sinus Iridium, Plato & Helicon

Captured 02/04/01

Celestron 8" + Vesta Pro

Helicon E just barely visible left of Helicon

Helicon & Helicon E

Captured 01/05/01

Celestron 8" + 2x Barlow + Vesta Pro

Helicon E is clearly visible left of Helicon

  Helicon E

Full resolution section of above image.

Helicon E is 2.4 km in diameter. The shadow part of Helicon E occupies about 1/2 of the crater or 1.2 km. One arc sec on the center of the face of the Moon represents a distance of 1.85 km. Therefore, detection of the shadow part of Helicon E demonstrates a resolution of Lunar features at 0.6 arc sec. or approximately 1 km. An excellent discussion of the observation of Helicon E and the concept on which this analysis was based can be found on Craig Zerbe's Video Astronomy Web Site.

   Helicon E

10 frames aligned, stacked and unsharp masked with IRIS. Significantly greater detail can be realized with stacking of Lunar images.

 Helicon E F30

Features present in this image below 0.5"

Image taken on 08/12/01. Night of very good seeing (7-8). C8, 3xBarlow, Vesta Pro WebCam, Vega camera control SW. Eight images stacked with AstroStack and adjusted with PhotoShop.

 Helicon E F30

Features present in this image below 0.5"

Image taken on 05/02/01. Night of exceptional seeing. C8, 3xBarlow, Vesta Pro WebCam, Vega camera control SW. Single image processed with PhotoShop LE, unsharp mask and contrast adjustment.