Aristarchus

[MickyWay]

Moon of the 27th September. I think it shows Aristarchus (brightest prominent crater) quite well.

(Canon1000D, 1/800th @ ISO400, Celestron C8 SCT).

Regards, Colin.

[nightfisher]

very sharp image well done

[JamesF]

very sharp image well done

Indeed. Is it a single frame, or stack?

James

[MickyWay]

Thanks Jules and James. It's a single frame. I shot about 20 frames and selected the sharpest.

Regards, Colin.

[JamesF]

It would definitely be worth having a go at stacking the frames to see how that looks, in that case.

James

[BuzzBomb]

Very nice shot. I agree with James, that you should try stacking all the images and see what the result brings. If I was picky, I would suggest bringing the brightness down a little bit. A quite excellent result though.

[Stargazer33]

Great shot! Very nice.

Bryan

[MickyWay]

Thanks Bryan.

James and Buzz, I don't think that stacking would improve the image very much. I only stack video frames, which give a higher proportion of sharp images.

Regards, Colin

[JamesF]

I'd give it a go, honestly. I'm imaging the Sun and Moon as often as the weather allows at the moment, using a Canon 450D and 127 Mak (so significantly less aperture than you're using). All of my images are produced from stacked subs. Here are some of my recent lunar images:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/164211-daylight-moon-6th-october/

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/163995-waning-moon-4th-october/

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/163606-full-moon-29-september-2012/

I'm starting with the RAW files, pre-processing with PIPP and then feeding them through either Registax v5, v6 or AutoStakkert!2 (my preference is for Registax v6, but it can be exceptionally fussy).

For a single frame I think your image is very good indeed, so I think there's some real potential to push things a bit further if you stack the images and give them a bit of a tweak with wavelets.

James

[K3ny0n]

I agree with regards to stacking the images. They will look 10x more sharper. Like James said just give it a try, you might be suprised.

Rob

[cgarry]

I agree too, stacking is definitely the way to go. Here is an example:

A crop of one of the better individual subs:

A crop of the final stacked image:

Chris

[MickyWay]

Hi, James, Rob and Chris,

Looks like I'm in the minority here and I really like your images James and Chris.

I particularly like your second image James, it also shows Aristarchus well

I have stacked DSLR images in the past, with mixed results, but perhaps I should see what I get with this image.

Regards, Colin.

[K3ny0n]

I tried stacking moon images for the first time a few nights ago and found out that by using the same ISO, Registax doesn't same to have much trouble. I found out the hard way though! So try not to mix your different ISO images in Registax.

Rob

[JamesF]

Yes, I think it's fair to say that it takes a little practice to reach the point where you're comfortable with it and even then there can be a fair bit of playing about to get things right. It's probably quite rare that I spent less time processing than taking the images in the first place.

James

[cgarry]

Hi Colin,

There is certainly an investment in time required to come up with a processing routine that suits you and works all most of the time. This should take nothing away from the excellent individual frame you posted, if you are starting with data of that quality the final image after stacking should be something special. Though of course you will have to get to grips with wavelets, which I am convinced nobody actually understands...

Cheers,

Chris

[JamesF]

There's a section on wavelets towards the back of the Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing, IIRC. I was beginning to struggle with the maths at that point though

Sometimes it feels as if you have to adopt the "how to fly a helicopter" approach: waggle all the controls around like a lunatic until you find something that works.

James