Lovely Moon Last Night - Cloud Dodging

[Stub Mandrel]

I had a short, cloud-dodging session last night, using the HEQ5 with its handset and only a rough alignment (lining the tripos up with the pattern of blocks on the patio...) That was enough to keep the moon in frame for long enough to take runs of 90 images or so. In the end I got 257 usable shots using the 450D (uncooled) and the 150PL, which gives nice framing. I also took 24 1/500 darks. i don't know if these helped much as the sky was lovely and steady and the subs were excellent anyway. I pre-processed in PIPP stacked 80% in AS!3 then processed in PS and Astra.

Deconvolution worked well on what were already nice images, better images allow smaller kernels and a stronger application without creating artefacts or blowing highlights on crater rims. I used '1' unit of middle-scale contrast - I'm rapidly deciding that although this enhances detail any more than a slight touch does not flatter the image. This minimal approach just brings out faint rays. The final touch was raising the tone curve to brighten the image. I also produced a colour version in Photoshop, obviously the unbalanced data was very red (actually orange), plus when at about quarter moon the edge facing the sun tends to be much redder than the area near the terminator which tends to blue/green. I went for a subtle amount of colour although I could have had a very psychedelic version. The full moon makes a better target for this approach as it is much more evenly illuminated and therefore more balanced colour wise.