My August Moon

[allcart]

Taken with my DSLR with a 400mm lens plus extenders. Total focal length was 1120mm. ISO 400 @ 1/100s.

The seeing wasn't perfect due to hazy cloud, so I cleaned it up a little in photoshop.

I took a series of shots intending to stack them with DSS to see if it would improve the final pic, but couldn't get it to stack the pics, so this is just a single shot.

C&C welcome.

[JamesF]

That's a very nice picture. If you want to stack moon images, Registax is perhaps the place to start rather than DSS. I can't get it to read large files though, so thus far I've ended up stacking the JPEGs.

James

[allcart]

Thanks James. I tried stacking a few images manually in photoshop, but could not get good enough alignment to make the image any better than this single pic. Will stacking several images like this one improve the detail?

[JamesF]

Stacking should improve the quality of the image by reducing the amount of noise. It's surprising how noisy a single image is.

James

[Ganymede12]

That is outstanding! Have you tried using GIMP2?

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Thats a very good picture. When ive tried the moon through DSLR it always comes out too dark so i shall work on it again when its higher in the sky. Did you have any luck with stacking some in the end?

[JamesF]

It's not the end of the world if the image looks dark. You can always stretch the histogram a bit in processing. Overexposure generally can't be fixed though. I used 1/1000th sec @ ISO400 for the image here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/160940-my-first-lunar-image-4th-september/

I wonder if I shouldn't perhaps have stretched it a little more.

James

[allcart]

I would like to see it a touch brighter, but you have much more detail in yours, especially in the lower right hand quarter.

My pic seems too bright now when I look at yours.

Now I'll have to try to process mine slightly darker with increased detail and then see how they compare.

[JamesF]

I'm not happy at all with the processing of mine. The more I look at it the less I like it. It's blown out in places and not bright enough in others. I shall redo it. I really meant it to illustrate to Matt that dark images aren't necessarily a major problem as long as you have enough data.

James

[FarSide]

Taking a quick mosaic of the moon is an idea too and usuing the free software package Imerge to place all of you images together. Great image, mate.

[allcart]

I've not got the length to shoot mosaics Mike. That pic of mine is the closest I can get unless I buy another tele extender, but with every extender I add, the image gets darker as the apperture closes down. What I really need is an 800mm lens.