Lunar photography

[Burnzie]

Hi,

I've been lurking for a while trying to pick up some tips on the best way to extent my current photography hobby to cover astrophotography.

From what I've read so far it seems that photographing DSO will require different (and likely more specialised) equipment to lunar photography.

I currently use a Canon 7D and older 400D for my, mainly landscape, photography. I have no lenses longer that 150mm.

What telescope would you recommend for me to concentrate on lunar photography ? What will enable me to capture some nice crater detail ?

any guidance will be gratefully received

regards

Burnzie

[Bizibilder]

If you want to get the whole disc of the Moon onto your camera sensor then a scope with a focal length of around 1000mm will do it. If you are prepared to make two or three pane mosaics then a scope of around 2-2.5m focal length (or a 1m scope with a 2x Barlow lens). Aparture is less critical as the quality of your image is likely to be limited by the atmosphere in the UK, maybe 3-5 inches for a refractor. An achromat will suffice but an "APO" would be better - and a whole lot more expensive! Maybe a small Mak of around 100-150mm aparture? Whatever you do take lots of frames and stack them - you will be amazed at the difference it makes!

Another alternative is to get hold of a webcam and use that to make videos of the Moon that can be stacked to produce very good images - the scope requirement being about the same. You will also need a decent (ie rigid) mount -an equatorial is probably best - maybe an EQ5 size or larger. Motor drive to at least the RA axis would also help but such refinements as goto are not really required for Lunar work.

Others will come up with different answers, of course. The final choice being decided by your wallet!

[Cornelius Varley]

My setup for lunar imaging is as follows

1. Skywatcher Skymax 150 Pro on a HEQ5 Pro mount.

2. For imaging either a Canon 400D or Samsung NX100 for shooting stills or an Imaging Source DMK21 for capturing AVIs for stacking in Registax. In all cases the focal length of the telescope is increased to 3600mm by the use of a Tele Vue 2x Powermate.

Example of Canon image. (focal length 3600mm and a combination of several overlapping images to cover the whole lunar disc merged together in Microsoft ICE)

http://www.astrobin..../8733/?mod=none

Example of Samsung image (fl = 3600mm, single frame)

http://www.astrobin..../8736/?mod=none

Example of Imaging Source image (fl=3600mm, 2 2000 frame AVi files stacked in Registax to create 2 still images which were then merged into a single image in Microsoft ICE)

http://www.astrobin....10944/?mod=none

[nightfisher]

For Luna imaging i would suggest a 127mm maksutov

[scoobee]

My Main aim for next year will be to image some moon craters in the lunar 100, thus I need a scope able to pick up some of the smaller ones.I was planning on using an SW Explorer 200p, any thoughts on this ?!

[Burnzie]

Hi, thanks for the advice.

Peter - love the stacked AVI image, is there much processing/PC work involved to do this ? ( feel my wallet starting to groan at the mention of CCD imaging. I'm a sucker for a new gadget)

Nightfisher - nice suggestion, especially from a portability point of view.

Also, I need to find a guide to some of the terminology & abreviations you guys use !

Burnzie

[Cornelius Varley]

Hi, thanks for the advice.

Peter - love the stacked AVI image, is there much processing/PC work involved to do this ? ( feel my wallet starting to groan at the mention of CCD imaging. I'm a sucker for a new gadget)

Nightfisher - nice suggestion, especially from a portability point of view.

Also, I need to find a guide to some of the terminology & abreviations you guys use !

Burnzie

A simple image such as the one of Clavius and Tycho didn't take much processing, it gets a more long winded if you do a full lunar mosaic which may be 100 indivual AVIs, all processed through either Registax, Avistack or Autostakkert (it helps that the last two programs have a batch process function). The resulting processed still images are then tweaked a little further to extract asmuch detail as possible and then the files are merged together in MicrosoftICE to create the final mosaic of images.

[Cornelius Varley]

My Main aim for next year will be to image some moon craters in the lunar 100, thus I need a scope able to pick up some of the smaller ones.I was planning on using an SW Explorer 200p, any thoughts on this ?!

A SW200P will give you some excellent images. Add a 3x or 4x barlow (or even a 5x) to improve the image resolution.