Best Way to Process The Moon?

[PhotoGav]

Here is my image of the moon from yesterday evening:

It is a stack of 39 frames and 19 darks (1/320 at ISO 200). I used Nebulosity 3 to process (subtract dark, normalize, demosaic & square), align and combine the frames, then a tweak and crop in PS CS3.

Shot with SW 80ED-Pro on HEQ5 with an un-modded Canon 50D.

Any comments greatly appreciated - is this the best way to process lunar images?

Cheers,

Gav.

[Kal]

Looks great! if I was processing it I would be adding more contrast, but that's just personal preference.

[Kelowna_Dave]

I'm not experienced enough to make any suggestions, but I think it's a great image with nice detail.

[PhotoGav]

Thank you folks. It's all a big learning curve, but a fun climb!

[JB80]

I know nothing about Nebulosity but does it have a wavelets application?

If not get Registax and upload the pic to that and skip straight to the wavelets tab and fiddle around with the first 3 sliders, it will change the pic drastically and may even look rubbish at first but when you find the right settings it will sharpen up the image quite a lot.

Other than that you have a good image there, well done.

[rockinrome]

That is a cracking shot! Especially if you consider how bright it must have been.

I normally just take at (say) ISO200/400 1/250th and then post process Black and White through GIMP.

[JB80]

I hope you don't mind but I took your pic and did some quick adjustments with the wavelets in Registax to show you what I mean about sharpening the image up.

[PhotoGav]

Thank you Jarrod - that's interesting to see and I think that you have improved the image, the contrast is better and the whole thing obviously sharper.

I will investigate Registax - no doubt further questions to come!

[PhotoGav]

OK - first questions... Where do you get Registax from? A web search gives me a site that doesn't open. Also, is there a version for Mac?

[rockinrome]

Find it here PhotoGav: http://www.astronomie.be/registax/download.html

No version for Mac.

There is also DeepSkyStacker http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html

[PhotoGav]

Thank you rockinrome!

[steve_w]

registax certainly added the wow factor to photogavs image

          steve_w

[jezhughes]

I personally always bring the colour out in the moon. most don't and its a shame, seeing as there is actually colour there. i.e.:

[glowingturnip]

and it looks freaky when you add loads 

[Alveprinsen]

Interesting...

For planetary imaging recording video and stacking in registax seems to be "the thing". But I have always wondered with the moon... could one take a whole bunch of ACTUAL pictures in like RAW, and stack THEM into a truly high resolution image?

I've wanted to do this, but just havent ... prioritized it..

If someone were to confirm this, I'd do it on the spot.

Sincerely, Alveprinsen.

[glowingturnip]

I'd say yes - have taken webcam avi's of the moon, and a bunch of dslr stills in the same session - the stacked dslr's did have the edge over the webcam in detail, sharpness and clariity I thought.

Ended up with a mahoosive pic of the supermoon here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/glowingturnip/9166767721/sizes/o/in/photostream/

[PhotoGav]

That's a beauty, glowingturnip! The colour saturation is good too - looks natural, but with some colour.

I've never tried the avi stacking method, but am happy with results from stacking raw dslr files.

[Astrosurf]

I prefer a Moon that's not too processed so I prefer your first image! Sorry guys! However, the multi-coloured moon is brilliant! How did you do it glowingturnip?

[JB80]

 could one take a whole bunch of ACTUAL pictures in like RAW, and stack THEM into a truly high resolution image?

Yes, it's perfectly possible to do so and there is an excellent write up on how to do such a thing by JamesF.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/184192-full-disc-lunar-imaging-with-a-dslr/page-3?hl=%2Bfull+%2Bdisc+%2Blunar#entry2076346

Also here is a recent attempt using my dslr and stacked RAWs, I followed James' tut for the most part but changed a couple of steps down to personal preference and processing issues.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/197071-its-been-a-while/

Re the mac thing I believe you can use get a program like wineskin? to run windows and it may work. If I'm wrong I'm sorry I know not of these Macs people speak of.

DSS wont work for the Moon but there is also Avistack and Autostakkert which are worth seeing if they run on Macs, I don't know.

I eventually used Avistack for my moon image and it looks complicated to use but there is a great guide on how to use it, http://www.astro-photo.nl/lunar-and-solar-stacking-using-avistack spend a morning or afternoon familiarising yourself with and keep the guide in your bookmarks.

[glowingturnip]

Thanks guys ! 

The colour saturation is good too - looks natural, but with some colour.

yeah, my favourite part is the rocky ground with the the schroteri rille to the north west of Aristarchus - can show colour even in an unsaturated moon image

However, the multi-coloured moon is brilliant! How did you do it glowingturnip?

hmm, there was a web tutorial, but the link seems to have broken.  So, in photoshop, take your original image, duplicate layers, on the new layer change the blending mode to 'luminance', on the layer beneath which is now by default your colour layer, you can start saturating - do in several steps of say +10 or +20 rather than one large step, looks more 'natural' that way.  You can also do some heavy colour noise reduction and a smallish (x3px or so) gaussian blur on this colour layer.   Possibly sharpen the luminance layer a tad, then flatten image.   It's a bit of fun, but it really does show different mineral compositions and different geological features clearly, and the colours do seem to be the same every time you do it, so they are real..  ish !

[Astrosurf]

Thanks! I'll give that a go.

[PhotoGav]

Mr Turnip,

Thank you for that great little tutorial. I've had a play with that technique on another image that I'm working on at the moment and it has made a massive difference to it. So, many thanks and please do post links to any other nuggets of photoshop astro technique tutorials that you have.

I'm particularly interested in "background noise reduction while leaving stars and galaxies well alone" at the moment, so any hints gratefully received!

Cheers,

Gav.

[glowingturnip]

'Mr Turnip'     my fault for letting my xbox live account choose a name for me automatically I suppose.  You can call me Stuart