Missed a bit but still proud

[ajdixon22]

Finally managed to find a nice, clear, windless night to dust the scope off and get outside. Took about 40x30s .avi's starting from the terminator and working my way round. Irritatingly found (the following morning) that I'd missed quite a bit of it but carried on processing anyway. All the avi's were stacked in Registax and then put together in photoshop. I've stuck an unsharp mask and a high pass filter over the top to get some of the extra detail to pop. Please critique me as much as possible, I'll only improve if you do.

All captured using a modded Phillips 900snc coupled to a Nexstar 130slt with a 2x barlow.

[Bizibilder]

Welcome to the "missed a bit" club!! That's a pretty good mosaic (apart from the obvious!). Exposure and focus are about right - focus on the full Moon being quite difficult to get just right due to the lack of contrast. I think maybe a little over-sharpened - often with wavelets and sharpening less can be more, if you see what I mean.

What software did you use to assemble the mosaic? there are one or two "joins" visible that could be dealt with quite easily.

[allcart]

Yes, apart from the obvious, good pic. lots of detail to be seen. You do have to be careful with the high pass filter as it is easy to overdo. Which layer mode did you use?

Makes my pic suck.

[JamesF]

Oh, that must be so annoying! Especially when it's such a fine image. I'm with Roger on the over-sharpened point (as it were It's very much a matter of taste, but I try to back off on the wavelets a bit if the image starts to look a bit harsh. I feel that a slightly softer look is more natural, but if you prefer the harder definition then absolutely stick with it.

James

[ajdixon22]

Hi guys, thanks for the comments, I don't think the over sharp look was due to the wavelets, I had actually done my normal process and then stuck an unsharp mask over the top of everything. Thought it looked good last night, changed my mind this morning. Anyway, I took the mask off and this is what I have left. Did the compiling in photoshop and still need to fix some of the overlaps, I'm thinking that feathering the edges of each image is going to be the easiest way to do it? If anyone has any other suggestions I'm always looking to learn new tricks (I know a little of photoshop but not masses)

[JamesF]

That one looks to be an improvement over the first to my eyes. Can't help with the montage issues I'm afraid. I've not done one myself yet.

James

[Bizibilder]

Have you tried imerge to compose your mosaic (its freeware) and works on BMP's - its easy enough to convert your images if you need to. it feathers the edges for you and balances the brightness and contrast between the panes. Alternativly you could try Microsoft ICE which also "does it all for you" and is free.

[Ganymede12]

Those look amazing! Shame about the hole in the middle.

[Biggz]

Lovely detail in that, the mistake will make you appreciate the next one you do where you get total coverage.

Be sure to show us that one too!

[Bizibilder]

I much prefer the treatment you have given the second image - its far more natural looking.

[estwing]

nice try!

[tbird]

I like the 2nd picture a more, nice crisp image.

I'm always missing bits, really frustrating, it would be a lot easier if the moon was square

[DazC]

Very, very nice. I would love to create an image like that.

Well done.

D.C

[allcart]

Still makes my pic suck.

I need to try harder.