The moon is too big!

[mark993]

Hi there all i have been trying my had at a bit of lunar photography but i cant get the whole thing in my fov is there anything i can do to fix this?

[astroimpulse]

Need more equipment info

[mark993]

i have a skywatcher 130 and a philips spc900nc

[dmn21]

You could try taking a range of shots and then stitching together a mosaic?

Dan

[mark993]

I had thought about that but not really sure how to go about it

[chemtom24]

i had a celestron 130 and a neximage, and suffered the same problem.

i have brought a 0.5x focal reducer but hvnt been able to try it yet, but this should solve the problem!

[Telrad]

You could try taking a range of shots and then stitching together a mosaic?

Dan

dmn21 is right. That's the best way to achieve what you want

Good luck!

[star_chaser]

I had thought about that but not really sure how to go about it

there are plenty of tutorials on the web (try astonomy shed) i was looking at getting a focal reducer but was advised on trying a mosaic and im glad i did its not that hard and the software you use (microsoft ice) is free and does all the work by its self

you just need to shoot sections of the moon making sure they overlap (microsoft ice)can check this . then just run each section through registax drag and drop all the sections one finished with registax into micro ice and it will put the all together for you. job done

hth star

[ollypenrice]

As above, Microsoft ICE is a cynch and usually gets it right. Allow plenty of overlap. The focal reducer is also not a bad idea and will speed up capture. The lighting of the moon does change fast enough for working quickly to be a good idea.

Olly

[Cornelius Varley]

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-tips-tricks-techniques/104876-making-lunar-mosaic.html

Peter

[Luke Inup]

I thought the field of view was also affected by too high a magnification. Have you tried a lower power eye-piece?

Regards

JonJon

[George]

I thought the field of view was also affected by too high a magnification. Have you tried a lower power eye-piece?

Regards

JonJon

I presume from what he's said that's he's using a webcam at prime focus ie no eyepiece involved.

[MorningMajor]

I had the same problem, not the actual making of the mosaic - but with my focal length I needed about 30 separate captures to get a full moon, so I bought a Astro engineering focal reducer from here and it's made a huge difference - down to about 12 captures now!

[Luke Inup]

George,

Should I have noticed that?

I didn't see specific mention of a webcam. (Although, now I guess the numbers refer to webcams.)

The only webcam I know anything about is the Logitech Quickcam (Can't tell you the model Number). So, without a clue about webcams and their use in astronomy, I took it that a telescope was being discussed.

I had no idea one could use a webcam for Astro Photography. I am aware that a PC can control a telescope, but I don't think my webcam would like being exposed to frosty nights on the back lawn.

Seriously, I didn't know about webcams in astronomy, and neither do I really understand how a PC can display the image from a telescope. Although, there must be cables or fibre-optics involved somewhere.

Anymore than that I cannot say.

In future I will refrain from commenting until I have read the post properly.

JJ

[Dave Smith]

You get greater resolution of the Moon if you don't use a focal reducer. In fact many use barlows or powermates to get higher magnification and hence higher resolution images. I once did a 120 frame mosaic of the Moon.

http://astrosnaps.co.uk/Moon-2009-10-09-final100.jpg

That was with a 9.25 Celestron SCT with a 2x barlow

Dave

[mark993]

George,

I had no idea one could use a webcam for Astro Photography. I am aware that a PC can control a telescope, but I don't think my webcam would like being exposed to frosty nights on the back lawn.

Seriously, I didn't know about webcams in astronomy, and neither do I really understand how a PC can display the image from a telescope. Although, there must be cables or fibre-optics involved somewhere.

Anymore than that I cannot say.

JJ

check out this pic mate i did this the other night with that web cam i mentioned at the start of the post. its not that hard at all there are some good tutorials about that are a great help.

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-lunar/145399-first-moon-pic.html

[Telrad]

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-tips-tricks-techniques/104876-making-lunar-mosaic.html

Peter

That's excellent from John. I've saved that in my favourites too. Really clear and concise methodology. Thanks for posting this link Peter!