First Proper Attempt at a Luna Mosaic

[Stargazer33]

This is my first proper attempt at a Luna mosaic.

It is 35 panes and a total of 58.3 minutes of imaging.

As you can see there are lots of gaps in my mosaic as I hadn't originally planned on doing a mosiac, it just kind of happened!

Equipment: C8 XLT with Revelation Superfocus 2 inch R&P focuser on a CG5-GT mount, SPC900NC (unmodified) fitted with a Moon filter.

Software:

Capture: SharpCap 1.99.750.0 (beta)

Processing: Registax 6, Photoshop 7, Microsoft ICE

Thanks for looking.

[long_arms]

Thats great !

Amazing for a first attempt as well, it can certainly be difficult to fill in all the gaps (although as you say you weren't really thinking about it anyway).

Dan

[Stargazer33]

Thanks Dan.

Looking at it again, I'm not too sure what is going on down the terminal line! I'm sure that should be straighter than that!

[Bizibilder]

That's a very good first Mosaic.

A couple of tips to help - always take the terminator panes first. This avoids the different shadow effects which are very noticeable over an hour or more! (The Moon rotates at a little over 12° per earth day - half a degree per hour). Second try downloading "Imerge" - it is a mosaicing program (freeware) but its most useful function is that it will take the first frame of each of your .avi's and allow you to manually merge them into a full mosaic. Dead easy to see if you are in the "missed a bit" club!! Also it gives you something to do whilst collecting your videos .

[long_arms]

Bizibilders tips sound very good.

I've never actually tried Imerge (have to give it a go now) but getting the terminator panes done first is certainly wise.

With regard to the actual terminator in this image it may simply be that you cut the blacks a bit. Did you post process after Microsoft Ice with levels?

Take another look at your finished mosaic beforehand and perhaps be a little lighter on the adjustments in photoshop. It can be very frustrating getting a nice background with a mosaic.

I had a nightmare trying to get the background looking presentable on this mosaic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/90652641@N04/8597776187/lightbox/

Dan

[Stargazer33]

Hi, thanks for the tips.

I did go down the terminator first, but missed the top pane. I started imaging Plato and it was after I had done two or three panes that I thought I would attempt to do the whole of the Moon.

All processing was done before the panes were merged in MS ICE. After stacking in RS6 I did the same wavelets on each pane and I let RS estimate the RGB balance. I couldn't get an even tone in the individual panes. I ended up having to convert them to black & white before they were merged.

I will give Imerge a go, but I'm not sure that my laptop battery will allow me to run it simulataneously. My battery died just before I managed to grab the last run, which is why I don't have the left hand edge. 3 hour battery life, my foot! I will have to think about putting a laptop feed into my mains power supply box. Maybe that can be the project for this Christmas holiday.

[Stargazer33]

Sorry long_arms, I forgot to say, I love your mosaic!

[Stargazer33]

Isn't it funny how your mind plays tricks on you? I could have sworn I went down the total length of the terminator first, but just reviewing my videos, I seem to have done three panes down from Plato and then gone back up to the top of the Moon and started doing a complete line down again from the next strip over. So it looks like I didn't do the lower right hand corner until 42 minutes after I did Plato.

It also looks like I started going diagonally! Oh well, there's always next month!