Quick Lunar Session

[Aussie Dave]

Great night for imaging however the moon is rising later every night. This was a very brief imaging session (@ 1am) when the moon was about 25 degrees above the horizon (fence). The colour is how it  looked through our lovely particle filled atmosphere in the south west corner of Western Australia. Heat shimmer visible on the edge. The image is unprocessed, ISO 1600, 1/250 sec, prime focus, D3100 and the Skywatcher Pro 6". Still testing camera and scope.

[xtreemchaos]

great image Dave, we had the shimmering sky lastnight and thismorrning. thanks for sharing  charl.

[Aussie Dave]

great image Dave, we had the shimmering sky lastnight and thismorrning. thanks for sharing  charl.

I didn't think you got any heat all the way up there this time of year

Have a few, almost identical photos that I'll process through Registax and see what it spits out. If it's worth posting I'll throw it up.

[Astro Imp]

Nice one Dave, have you forest fires in the area causing the colour cast.?

[Aussie Dave]

We had a couple around last week but miles away Alan. They burn off before the heat of Summer hits. It's been like this for a couple of months. Some are small burn off's, some are much bigger.

[Aussie Dave]

There's something I'm not doing correctly in Registax and I don't know what it is. I tried for the first time processing 42 images of M42 Orions Nebula. All processing went well but ended up with a black image, even though there are a few stars in all the shots.

Anyway, last lunar image for the night, single shot processed in Paint.Net...

[Aussie Dave]

Ok, I found out what I needed to do in Registax, I haven't been adjusting the wavelets   The program settings by default are set quite low. I had to bump most of the sliders up to around the middle before it brought out the detail.

Here is the final image, 3 single shots processed in Registax and finished off in Paint.Net.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice detail there, Dave

[laudropb]

That is a much better image. The detail is nice, especially from only 3 stacks.

[Aussie Dave]

Thanks guys, I'm quite pleased with it but would like to do much better. It's amazing what can be achieved from a few average shots and the difference from an unprocessed, unedited shot to a few stacks is quite noticable. I won't be doing any more Lunar for a while until the next time it's around

Trying to capture my first DSO, M42. 

[xtreemchaos]

Dave, we dont have heat this time of the year mate but the sky dos shimmer from time to time, it makes the stars look like disco lights.  clear skys  charl.

[Aussie Dave]

We get a lot of that here Charl.

Stayed up late tonight/this morning and it was, what seemed to be a cool, dry, clear night with no moon, the best yet! So I had to get my gear out (as we all do). I think I captured M42 but with no tracking and guesstimating exposure times for a while there, even at 2 seconds I got star trails. But the up side is i have smudges on each shot

This stuff is just too addictive.

[xtreemchaos]

yer i know what you mean mate, my addicsion started in about 1969 with my parents letting my stop up to watch the sky at night, ive been hooked ever since, and M42 is addictive too, i have to at least look at it or take a pic everytime its in view which is nearly every clear night in winter. goodluck mate and clear skys charl.

[Aussie Dave]

haha, I was born that year. Every night I'm ouside, I gotta look up, dunno why that is.

2nd attempt at M42 and that too will never see the light of day, not on here any way. M42 was almost directly above me about 2:30am so I had to give it a go. A little wiser for it and glad I gave it a go. Maybe 3rd time lucky. I guess I should start to learn  polaralignment and some stars...

Cheers Charl.

[xtreemchaos]

yer Dave polaralignment is the mainthing when taking images the better its done the better the pics, and if you have a polar scope fitted to your mount it makes it all the more easyer.  clear skys  charl.