The Moon (47% Illumination)

Target details

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and one of the largest moons in the Solar System. It orbits about 240,000 miles away on average – just over one light-second. It formed around 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth, most likely from debris thrown out when a Mars-sized body called Theia crashed into the young Earth. The Moon always keeps the same face towards us, and that near side is a patchwork of dark volcanic plains, the maria, between bright ancient highlands and sharp impact craters.

The image features a couple of well known transient features, the Lunar 'X' and Lunar 'V'. An annotated image can be found here.

Capture details

Data captured 1st February, 2020.
206x 1/10s through Ha filter.

Equipment Details
Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Atik 460EX Mono

Processing details

This image was processed in Registax, Pixinsight & Lightroom.
Alignment & Stacking completed in Registax, best 70% of images, exported as 32bit FIT.
Stacked image imported into Lightroom.
Histogram Transformation - To stretch the image, it was a bit too bright.
Unsharpmask - To sharpen very slightly, with range mask to protect background.

Export as JPEG and import into Lightroom.

Multiple graduated filters to reduce exposure by 1 stop around outer disc to get even exposure across surface.
Increase Exposure (+0.50)
Reduce Highlights (-15)
Reduce Blacks (-10)

Export final JPEG for upload.