Moon...

Moon (71% full) at 7.10pm GMT, 23rd March 2021

Object: The Moon 

Constellation: Cancer
Distance: 387000 km (240780 miles)

Date: March 23rd 2021
Equipment: Vixen ED114, SXV-H9, Vixen GPDX mount

Subframes: 200 x 0.01s in H-alpha (aligned, stacked and wavelet sharpened in Registax 5)

Rather than curse the bright moon and high haze for preventing any useful deep-sky astrophotography on an otherwise clear night, I thought it would be good to blow the dust off my ancient Vixen refractor and equally ancient SXV-H9 camera and do some simple lunar imaging. I have had both for nearly 20 years and had contemplated selling them. However, the SXV-H9 chip size is a perfect fit for whole-disc imaging of the moon and Sun using the Vixen ED-114 and I have decided to keep them for that purpose. The optics of the Vixen are pretty good (although the blue-end colour correction of the Vixen isn't brilliant) and it's certainly good enough for his duty.

As with any SX product, getting the camera software to work is always a problem. It has long since ceased to run on my old XP laptop workhorse ever since I put Loadstar software it, which would not run a Loadstar and has since refused to recognise the SXV-H9. In the end, I managed to get it to run on my newish Win 10 laptop in the native software used for my newer SX694. 

SX cameras are really good (as is their customer support) but sorry SX, your software is pony.  Still, really can't complain - their 20 year old CCD camera still works perfectly and I have no doubt that if I have real problems with it, SX will still help out.

I use an old Astronomix 12 micron H alpha filter as a light blocker for the moon as the CCD otherwise gets flooded. The long wavelength also helps to cut through poor seeing and keep the subframes sharp.