First images (Moon)

[Albenn]

I finally got around to buying a DSLR (used Canon 600D) to go with my new 8SE GOTO so thought I'd try my hand with a few photos of the moon using prime focus and last night provided me with a decent opportunity to have a dabble.

Having never really used a DSLR let alone done any kind of imaging, I set everything up whilst it was still quite light so I could easily check if all was as it should be according to the info I had gathered. I aligned the scope and used the Live view to focus. I then remembered a tip I had read which suggested to zoom the object using the camera's live view and focus on that instead of the full frame. I tried the focus using both the full frame and the zoomed in view and the zoomed in method was so much sharper.

Anyway, I started off with an ISO of 200 and a shutter speed of about 1/250. This resulted in a very bright washed out image so I set the ISO to 100 and used the internal light meter to set the shutter speed. I then tried to do an aperture preview but this didn't work so I tried again, again and again but it wouldn't work. I then realised that this would never work as there was no lens on the camera! Bit of a Homer moment there.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't fit the whole of the moon in the frame, but with hindsight I realised I could have rotated the camera to do. I also wished later on that I had waited until the sky was dark but I just wanted to have a play with all the new kit.

Anyway, I have posted a couple of the better ones for everyone to have a good laugh at....no, seriously I would love some feedback re tips and advice as to how to improve things.

The images were shot in RAW and are posted unprocessed as jpeg.

[Steve Ward]

Nice start there . . .

Give Rogers tutorial a look here . . . http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/153712-simple-white-light-solar-imaging/

Don't be put off by the title , the basics apply to Lunar shooting too .

[Albenn]

Nice start there . . .

Give Rogers tutorial a look here . . . http://stargazerslou...-solar-imaging/

Don't be put off by the title , the basics apply to Lunar shooting too .

Steve - Thanks for comments. Just had a quick look at the link and it seems pretty interesting. Will give it more time when I get home from work

[Albenn]

Update:

Had a play with Canon Digital Professional and came up with these. Top one is a 3 picture composite. Second one is a single frame. Would love some feed back as to how I could improve things.

[Albenn]

Update

Had yet another play with processing last night and ended up with this:

Too much processing? Comments welcome.

[baggywrinkle]

With Moon shots I do a minumum of processings but work on framing and focus. I might suggest a focal reducer to get everything in the frame.

[Albenn]

Baggywrinkle

Thanks for feedback. Much appreciated.

I would have gotten the whole of the moon in the frame if I had turned the camera through 90 deg from landscape to portrait and the focus would probably have been a little tighter if I had worn my reading glasses when setting the focus when using the camera liveview screen! Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it? Still, we live and learn.

These are the things you don't need to think about during visual observing.

I've thought about the Celestron FR as it would enable me not only to reduce exposure times when photographing but to also view the whole of the Orion Nebula without resorting to taking another scope out.

[JamesF]

Roger's tutorial is definitely worth reading. I wrote one specific to lunar imaging too, here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/184192-full-disc-lunar-imaging-with-a-dslr/

Your images look good to me. You should have enough room to fit the Moon in the frame by rotating the camera, but you're going to struggle once more than three quarters of the face we can see is lit. At that point it would probably be easier to make a mosaic of two frames.

James

[Albenn]

James

Thanks for feedback. Thinking of the Celestron FR to reduce processing time. Do these reducers diminish quality?

Just had a look at the processed pictures on my 21" monitor (at work - LOL!) and there is quite a bit of Jpeg artefacting that wasn't apparent on my home 21 monitor. Wonder if it's the graphics card on my work PC?

[Steve Ward]

Hi Alan ,

Easy way round that .

NEVER work with JPEG's . . . far too much compression.

ALWAYS shoot in RAW mode to catch everything that comes in the front end , convert to TIFFs before putting into Registax and save as lossless PNG before posting.

[Albenn]

Steve

Thanks for advice. I always shoot in RAW but wasn't aware png was lossless and could be used for posting. I did the stacking in Canon software which allows RAW stacking but seems to be limited to 3 images only.

I have Registax which seems to be what most people use, so I'll give it a go using tiff's as per your comments.

Boy - have I got a lot to learn!

[JamesF]

My understanding is that one of the problems associated with focal reducers is that they introduce a fair amount of curvature of the focal plane. This means that with a large sensor such as those on DSLR cameras it may not be possible to get the entire image in focus at the same time. I think this is even more of a problem with the f/3.3 FR and because of the additional length the f/6.3 FR would add to the optical path I'm not sure even it would be sufficient to fit the image in one frame.

It's sufficiently marginal that I think you'd really want advice from someone who has used the FR on the C8 for lunar imaging with a crop-sensor DSLR before buying one.

James

[cgarry]

My understanding is that one of the problems associated with focal reducers is that they introduce a fair amount of curvature of the focal plane. This means that with a large sensor such as those on DSLR cameras it may not be possible to get the entire image in focus at the same time. I think this is even more of a problem with the f/3.3 FR and because of the additional length the f/6.3 FR would add to the optical path I'm not sure even it would be sufficient to fit the image in one frame.

It's sufficiently marginal that I think you'd really want advice from someone who has used the FR on the C8 for lunar imaging with a crop-sensor DSLR before buying one.

James

I believe the f/6.3 FR is a field flattener as well as a focal reducer and is designed to remove focal plane curvature rather than introduce it. I have some raw lunar images captured with my C9.25 and a f/6.3 FR (plus some taken using an f/8 FR). I shall take a close look at them when I get a chance to see if the focus is consistent over the whole image.

Cheers,

Chris

[Matt Scunthorpe]

I think there cracking images. Keep at it

[baggywrinkle]

I brought my copy of 'Make Every Photon Count' with me on this trip to China, glad i did. It has an excellent section on RAW V JPEG which makes sense of the whole thing. But there again the book is excellent. It tends towards DSO photography BUT the technical explanantions on DSLR V CCD, chips sizes and then processing images are applicable to DSO and solar system photography.

I also use my 4/3rds Lumix as an afocal device for the moon, then I can always choose an EP which will frane the whole thing.

[Albenn]

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice. Much appreciated