lunar mosaics 6th 7th June

[Joseki]

I thought I'd have a go at doing a lunar mosaic.  On the 6th I had a go with a 150 f5 newt (Altair Astro), on the 7th with a Skymax 127 f11.8 Mak.  I'm quite pleased with the results as my first lunar mosaics.

Captures were ~1000 frames per panel with the 150f5 and exactly 1000 frames with the Mak (still learning to use the software - firecapture).  Using a ASI120MM camera.  Stacked with AS!2 and combined with ICE, levels tweaked and unsharpmask applied with GIMP.  For the first night I was adjusting the histogram using exposure but realised that gain might be a better way (and some quick tests completed at the end of the night supported that), to allow higher fps.

With the newt - a 25 panel mosaic

With the Mak - a 88 panel mosaic (I was a bit over cautious perhaps)

For the difference in effort involved they look similar to me but the higher resolution image is pretty nice as I can zoom in a crop details and still get what I think is quite nice results, eg this one showing Apennine and Caucasus mts

On the 6th I also did a 14 image mosaic of this section of the Imbrium basin:

Looking for features around the terminator I got this image of the Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, Arzachel group using the 150f5 + 3x GSO barlow.  As a bonus, after processing I realised I'd captured Rupes Recta.  This image is technically the worst though of these:

Finally, I wanted to focus on the Copernicus crater last night, a major crater on the moon and one that is used to date the start of the modern geological era (the Copernican) in lunar stratigraphy (1.1 billion years ago, basin size 55 Km wide).

First shot at the Mak127 f11.8 to capture some of the surrounding features, then at f36 (GSO 3x ed barlow)

though for this sort of close up I'm looking forward to having my 250 f6.4 newt in operation.

[Joseki]

Oh, and I clicked post rather than preview so I meant to add that suggestions for improvement are very welcome! - My GIMP processing is very basic so I know that is something I need to work on.