Lunar Feb 17th @f26

[Space Cowboy]

Its been ages since I did any lunar imaging so tonight I had a good hour session shooting at f26 with my Auto Dob 250 and 5x powermate. Seeing was not too bad.

Here is the first 3 images I've processed with several more to come. Each avi was around 90 secs @60fps stacking 2-3000 frames in AS!2 using 1.5x drizzle then downscale 75%.

[JamesF]

Some lovely detail in those. Well done. I love the rift in the first one, and the very odd-looking crater in the bottom left of the third.

James

[neil phillips]

Nice Stuart. Did you shoot in colour or y800 ? I assume you did these in As2. I must admit ive never done a drizzle with lunar. The best program i found. ( most think this too ) is avi stack. It really can map the surface well. Its interesting how youve processed. Somewhat different. But i like it.

[si@nite]

Some nice close detail Stuart & very nicley processed!

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks guys! Yes I used AS!2 Neil it copes far better with the drifting I get with Dob tracking than Registax. I had to make several adjustments with the hand set to keep the images in view during the 90 secs.

I'm wondering if the detail is a little too soft which may be down to the tracking or it could be the hazy sky which although had decent seeing, trans did go down hill towards the end of the session. I had already focussed using Jupiter so I'm confident that part of the equation was ok.

The 1.5x drizzle seemed much better than without Neil though that may just be me using the wrong wavelets for lunar? I will give avi stack a try too.

I'm pretty green with Lunar processing so if anyone has some advice I'm all ears.

Yes I used y800 Neil.

[SnakeyJ]

Stuart - fantastic images from that DFK and 5x Barlow, crisp and full of detail. Love the tone/composition on the first and the detail at the bottom of the craters in the second.

At the risk of sounding dumb - how did those tracks get there in the first image? Is it subsidence or geologic fault, or is someone rolling cheeses (BIG)?

[neil phillips]

Thanks guys! Yes I used AS!2 Neil it copes far better with the drifting I get with Dob tracking than Registax. I had to make several adjustments with the hand set to keep the images in view during the 90 secs.

I'm wondering if the detail is a little too soft which may be down to the tracking or it could be the hazy sky which although had decent seeing, trans did go down hill towards the end of the session. I had already focussed using Jupiter so I'm confident that part of the equation was ok.

The 1.5x drizzle seemed much better than without Neil though that may just be me using the wrong wavelets for lunar? I will give avi stack a try too.

I'm pretty green with Lunar processing so if anyone has some advice I'm all ears.

Yes I used y800 Neil.

Ive tended to oversharpen, so i like the noise free presentation. Haze wouldnt normally make the image soft i dont think ? often it calms the air, as you mention good seeing. ive had occasion where the haze has got heavier and heavier the seeing better and better. The real downside is gain and noise in those situations, not sure if thats what you mean. If your getting drift, and as/2 copes better, it may well be the best process for you im not sure ?

If the drift is not massive have you thought about creating a registered avi. Trouble is with that every part of the drift off screen will be chopped away so the capture will be smaller. But if the image can take it. its worth doing because once its still.

Avi stack can really do a good mapping job right to the edges, and with no motion a sharper image should appear generally. Another approach, a patch of sorts, would be to combine both approaches. Meaning for close up craters do the registerd avi, map it with avi stack. then run the un registerd film again. process that. The missing chunks can then be put back together using imerge. But now with the benefit of the super sharp middle sections. Problem is you may have to sharpen the process that was un registerd a touch more. Becuse the registerd version will do such a good job, you may see it worsen a bit as you come away from the registerd section. A similar appearance i used to get when i did mapping on reg. but the map boxes were not right to the edge. those areas looked a little softer. But as mentioned with clever sharpening you might be able to blend those areas quite well. Its a patch job Stuart. what you really need is no drift. difficult i know. Even i get drift with a neq6. sounds like your doing the right things getting enough frames to cherry pick.

60 FPS will produce sharper images though at the expense of more noise, and possibly more ringing. The ideal is very soft velvet texture, ( low gain ) but sharp stable avis ( good seeing)

under great seeing 30 fps can do really well. producing lovely soft natural textures. That look so very real. But as mentioned with uk skies most often 60 fps will be sharper. Gain is the enemy for lunar even 600 frames stacked. will still show a bit of noise. at 60 fps with the gain needed to achieve those frame counts.

I think youve done very well indeed. As mentioned i over process somewhat. Though saving a lot of my early stuff in giff format on my site was a mistake. As it has produced noise by itself. Jpeg minimum. Luckily i relized this and swithched. As i learned more.

[Space Cowboy]

Cheers Neil I shall give those methods a try. Just transferring another batch of lunar avis taken tonight. Tracking was better and with less breeze and again decent seeing I've tried 30fps. Will be interesting to compare. Hoping to put some mosaics together from tonights captures.

[neil phillips]

Cheers Neil I shall give those methods a try. Just transferring another batch of lunar avis taken tonight. Tracking was better and with less breeze and again decent seeing I've tried 30fps. Will be interesting to compare. Hoping to put some mosaics together from tonights captures.

You lucky devil i had to go back to the docs for more antibiotics. The moon howling in my ear holes lol. I saw it and thought right who can i kill on the way to the docs ??????

over to the other page now