My 1st Lunar shot 600D

[Ewan]

Thought i would share this with you guys, last nights lunar view 100 frames @ 1/13 sec iso 100, low iso gave me a darker background, Registax 6 processed & very quickly tweaked as i have not used the software that much, looks quite sharpe but i seem to have a slight ghosting from image shift ? stacking on lower right, if i can improve it anymore please give me a shove in the right direction

[Vince1963]

Great pic Ewan

[pbrad]

Wow. That's a nice pic.

[Ewan]

Thanks guys, I was focusing on the 'black' crater top left of Mare Crisium, it has a small impact crater on its rim & made a perfect spot to try to get good focus using Live view, going to try some tonight using the remote shutter with pauses of 2 secs between shots to eliminate all camera shake which i think i get taking quick 10 shots on camera timed mode which is why 1 out of 10 shots were very good & the other 9 slightly out of focus (very slight blur).

Clear skies all

[bm1980]

Nice work, i have never tried stacking images with my DSLR . I have only captured single frames, i look forward to seeing your future results.

Regards

Ben

[Ewan]

Nice camera you have there Ben , i have Registax 6 + update + Win 7, i got a lot of errors with the program inc exceptions & out of storage space, strange as i have about 3GB page file + 400GB HD space, maybe buggy with 600D i guess although Registax 5 does the same , got to the point i may not use it at all now, im going to try Autopano as well as i heard it can also stack images.

I got some Saturn shots which are a wee bit fuzzy but you can still see the cassini division but Regi just crashes everytime i try to process them shame as i wanted to get some opinions on them as well, Mars too (fuzzy orange ball).

How are you finding the 600D Ben ?

Clear skies all

[PapaPlanets]

Well there I was, all pleased with myself after managing to get out on the first clear night since I got my 600D for my birthday over a month ago. I was about to post my first ever moon image and I jump on to see someone with the same camera has done the same thing, the same weekend. Oh and it's a much better image than mine I hate you Ewan

Great image I'll have to get back out tonight and try some stacking. I was gonna try some wide field last night too but I ran out of camera battery

I really should have done some more research before going out, but I thought I'd just have a play, so here's my single shot with no post processing (1/6 sec ISO 200):

Full Size: 5184 x 3456 (2MB)

Oh an by the way, my avatar was a quick point at Saturn to see if I would capture anything.

And to jump in on the question you asked Ben, the camera is AMAZING! I can't understand people who say the articulating screen is not worth it, it's brilliant. To be able to use the live view comfortably and focus whilst using the digital zoom is perfect. Great camera.

[Ewan]

First off i would like to say thanks to Skywatcher250 for pointing me in the general direction of the 600D without his advice i would not have upgraded from the 1100D...cheers mate

Hi Papa , your shot is great as it's only a single image, you do a hundered of those then stack them it would look amazing. I spent ages that late afternoon trying all sorts of 600D settings till i got it just how i thought was good enough.

Though the sky was blue i adjusted the ISO setting & speed to get a blacker sky & more defined image, the live view mode is amazing for getting better focus at x10, i'm going to try the same settings tonight again using the remote timer which i set up like this : 600D on single shot, remote on a 4 sec countdown, 4 seconds between each shot (for camera to settle but im going to try 2 secs as well) for 10 exp then adjust C8 if necessary then do again until i have 100.

Papa im not sure if its the fact i only have Win 7 & 4GB ram but Registax 6 always crashes with the image res at the highest setting, i tried Registax 4 that did the same & a box DID pop up saying images were too big so i resized to 3456 x 2304 & they at least loaded, just trying to help save you some work / frustration, give it a go & post em.

Good luck & clear skies

[PapaPlanets]

You da man Ewan, I was just trying to work out why it kept crashing when i was trying to stack 10 or so from last night. Super handy. I'm not sure my focus was bang on last night so hoping for another go tonight.

[Ewan]

Glad to help Papa, I'm going to do another run tonight as I'm trying to get all the phases this time round (1st time).

I'm still learning with Regi & I also installed version 4 & 5 as well as they seem a little easier but ever so slightly not as advanced.

Good luck with your images

Long may these clear skies rain over us contradiction I know lol

[bm1980]

Nice camera you have there Ben , i have Registax 6 + update + Win 7, i got a lot of errors with the program inc exceptions & out of storage space, strange as i have about 3GB page file + 400GB HD space, maybe buggy with 600D i guess although Registax 5 does the same , got to the point i may not use it at all now, im going to try Autopano as well as i heard it can also stack images.

I got some Saturn shots which are a wee bit fuzzy but you can still see the cassini division but Regi just crashes everytime i try to process them shame as i wanted to get some opinions on them as well, Mars too (fuzzy orange ball).

How are you finding the 600D Ben ?

Clear skies all

The 600d is an excellent camera for astro work, i love the tilting screen it makes capturing images of the moon so much easier when using live view at prime focus. In truth i dont get out as much as i would like to, its hard especially this time of year.

With regards to saturn and mars, they are always going to be hard targets with the DSLR, having such a large sensor the resolution is so small, i experimented with jupiter earlier this year and couldnt get nowhere as good an image as i have captured with my spc880 webcam. I would strongly recomend going the webcam route for planenary imaging.

All the best with your astrophotography

Regards

Ben

[Ewan]

Cheers Ben I'm looking at getting the new Celestron Solar 5MP cam when it's out, in the mean time I'm going to try out a PS3 Eye cam as people have had some luck with them here's some info from google about the chip :-

High sensitivity for low-light operation

Standard SCCB interface

Output support for Raw RGB, RGB (GRB 4:2:2, RGB565/555/444) and YCbCr (4:2:2) formats

Supports image sizes: VGA, QVGA, and any size scaling down from CIF to 40x30

VarioPixel? method for sub-sampling

Automatic image control functions including: automatic exposure control (AEC), automatic gain control (AGC), automatic white balance (AWB), automatic band filter (ABF), automatic black-level calibration (ABLC)

ISP includes noise reduction and defect correction

Image quality controls including color saturation, hue, gamma, sharpness (edge enhancement), and anti-blooming

Lens shading correction

Saturation level auto adjust (UV adjust)

Edge enhancement level auto adjust

De-noise level auto adjust

Frame synchronization capability

Half of that makes no sense to me but worth a try ?

Baking in the sun

[bm1980]

Hi doesnt seem a bad webcam,but i cant comment as i have never used one also i would highly recomend the spc 880 if you can still get hold of one.

Regards

Ben