Lunar mosaic- Full moon.

[long_arms]

Hello,

It was almost a full moon and I hadn't attempted one of those yet so it had to be done!

The frames are all good, this is just the first process of it all with some dodgy photo editing afterwards with GIMP

I think I may have overdone the wavelets a tad, and perhaps the contrast is a little much for my liking, however I am extremely happy.

This is a mosaic of around 30 panes. Each pane is a stack of 1500 frames.

All taken with my skywatcher 200p f/5 with a point grey firefly mono at prime focus.

I've also attached a single pane of the Copernicus area (as it came out of registax) to show the field of view I had.

All comments/criticism/ suggestions for improvement greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Dan

[Uplooker]

Dan,

Thats really good. excellent bit of work. How how long did it take you to capture all the panes?

It is not something I have ever attempted - maybe one day

Ian

[long_arms]

Thanks very much!

It took about half an hour to get all the captures. I could have taken less but I always get paranoid that I haven't gotten every part !

I really enjoy doing lunar mosaics, mainly because I get to see all the detail on the laptop screen as its recording! I never push the wavelets up much and only do minimal sharpening in gimp but I know it has a lot more detail that could be brought out. (I like it to look faaaairly natural).

It is very time consuming stacking every pane, followed by cropping every stacked image (registax puts a white border on), then final editing with gimp. But I think the results are worth it (as a newbie).

Dan

[kyokugaisha]

Awesome image Dan. I love how complex the rays coming from Copernicus are. Really nice montaging as well.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Stunningly sharp!

[Stargazer33]

Excellent mosaic Dan! If you are capturing images like that as a newbie, then what will you be doing when you have thoroughly learnt your craft!

Puts my efforts to shame.

Well done!

[davo]

That really is a fantastic Moon! great great (i did mean to say it twice) detail

A stunning... stunning image!

[SnakeyJ]

Dan,

Great result on this and a fair bit of work in post processing, but the end result is excellent. Very organised to shoot 1500 frames x 30 panes in one half hour - my last attempt was 9 panes of 1200 in about an hour and I still missed two areas. Did you plan this out as a grid first or just work through systematically.

The firefly MV is a great little lunar imager - did you use any filters?

Regards - Jake

[long_arms]

Thankyou all so much for your kind comments !

I am very happy with it! This is the first time I haven't overexposed Copernicus ! I struggled a little with the shutter speed going crazy but I just did the best I could. It hasn't come across on the finished image thank goodness. (It wont happen again)

Did you plan this out as a grid first or just work through systematically.

The firefly MV is a great little lunar imager - did you use any filters?

I was very swift but that doesnt include the time I took focusing (I take a while with a peg on the focuser and checking key areas of the moon). I've heard about grids and whatnot, but I just start by working my way around the entire edge of the moon. I then move to copernicus...and do a small circle of captures around there. I was very paranoid for this one, you can see from the fov I dont need 30 panes.

Nope no filters. Just sensor at prime focus. I know I can improve by using a filter so look forward to that.

My camera sensor was utterly filthy for this mosaic also (see my other topic in the imaging help for an idea of HOW bad) but I didnt realise until afterwards so getting that clean should help!

Thanks,

Dan

[SnakeyJ]

Dan

Go gently cleaning the CMOS, aside from the dirt/contamination there's nothing wrong with the camera. Stunning mosaic nonetheless - look forward to the next installment 60 pane mosaic with barlow, which I reckon would look lovely as a poster for my lads bedroom wall

Jake

[3ggman]

Thats fantastic, a very sharp image. Good work.

[stem1989]

this is awesome! its on my list of 'things to do in 2013' but cloud cover will ruin things

[long_arms]

Thanks

I will certainly be doing a mosaic as often as possible.

And with a barlow! I plan on getting an image of every feature of the lunar 100 (when the terminator is nearby) this year which will be a challenge!

I never understand why lunar imaging isnt more popular. All these deep sky imagers that complain about the moon...why not image that? Love to see what those incredible cameras, telescopes and filters could produce!!

Dan