December 1, 2015: Quick moon with 70-300 IS USM

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

As I was making breakfast I spotted the moon and three planets out. I grabbed the (second-hand) Canon 70-300mm IS USM zoom I bought last Saturday, and put the IS bit to use by rattling off a series of 40 lunar images at 300mm. I stacked them with 3x drizzle, sharpened in ImPPG, and scaled the result back by a factor of 2 in GIMP.  Quite pleased with the result.

I also tried without drizzle

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

They seem to be less sharp than the versions on my PC. I will see if I can upload the original ones on some other machine and add these later

[xtreemchaos]

great shots Michael, thay look sharp on my tv mate. thanks for posting charl.

[Psychobilly]

They seem to be less sharp than the versions on my PC. I will see if I can upload the original ones on some other machine and add these later

Nice image...

Something does it's best to trash the images on the forum... I haven't got to the bottom of what it is so haven't got a decent solution to it yet...

Peter...

[RikM]

They look pretty good. I think I prefer the one without the drizzle. It appears a bit sharper to me.

[RichM63]

Pretty sharp, but drizzle always seems to soften edges whenever I use it.

Prefer without.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

OK, take 2, originals

Without drizzle

With drizzle (does seem softer)

[Alien 13]

Very good lunar image I too prefer the un drizzled one, now add some baader film and you have a quick solar set up too.

Alan

[Drop Of Sun]

Nice one, Michael.

[cgarry]

Nice images but I think you need to revisit your sharpening.  The super bright edge needs to be brought under control IMO.

Cheers,

Chris

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice images but I think you need to revisit your sharpening.  The super bright edge needs to be brought under control IMO.

Cheers,

Chris

They are a bit bright, but then the entire exposure is on the bright side. I should have reduced exposure time a bit. As it is I think the auto metering did a good job given the extreme contrasts in the image.

[cgarry]

I was commenting onthe bright ring where the moon edge meets space.  I get that on lunar/solar discs when I am a little careless with my wavelet application, which is more often than not...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I was commenting onthe bright ring where the moon edge meets space.  I get that on lunar/solar discs when I am a little careless with my wavelet application, which is more often than not...

I see what you mean. I switched on "prevent ringing" in ImPPG, but there still is a problem.

[laudropb]

Very nice images. I definitely prefer the without drizzle.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I was commenting onthe bright ring where the moon edge meets space.  I get that on lunar/solar discs when I am a little careless with my wavelet application, which is more often than not...

I have just checked the original data, and the bright ring around the limb is already visible in the individual frames. This suggests the camera is doing some processing which is causing the ringing. I wasn't capturing in raw mode, but quality JPEG (this is my daytime camera, not the astro one)

[cgarry]

That is interesting.  To be honest I doubt many people would even notice it but I think that I am a little sensitive to this effect having fought against it when applying wavelets to my lunar and solar images.

[Aussie Dave]

Nice image Mike. I suspect the ring to be optics and processing usually enhances this ring especially if converted to black and white on the brighter side of the moon. I've seen it a lot on SGL. Bump up the shutter speed a tad and fine tweek the focusing and it should be a lot better if not eliminating it.

 I also get this ring on some of my shots with the cameras I've tested, not always but mine tends to be coloured CA. I'm not too worried about it and no one's ever mentioned it 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice image Mike. I suspect the ring to be optics and processing usually enhances this ring especially if converted to black and white on the brighter side of the moon. I've seen it a lot on SGL. Bump up the shutter speed a tad and fine tweek the focusing and it should be a lot better if not eliminating it.

 I also get this ring on some of my shots with the cameras I've tested, not always but mine tends to be coloured CA. I'm not too worried about it and no one's ever mentioned it 

I doubt optics do this, it looks like a typical sharpening artefact. Most DSLRs do a lot of enhancement, generally aimed at everyday images. They will typically not be optimized for astronomical work

[Aussie Dave]

You're probably right so I'll stand corrected, I didn't read your previous comment correctly.

On my Nikon I was taking shots on the jpg fine setting which I think I still do and the cameras must do some processing/sharpening. You can often notice it on the sun lit side of the creater rims too with them being pure white with no detail, like an over processed shot to try to get more detail... which I still often do.