Photographing the Moon

[smr]

Hi,

I've taken photos of the Moon before as single shots with a 600mm Camera Lens and a tripod. 

I've since sold said lens and own a shorter focal length (430mm) refractor, but I now own an HEQ5 Pro.

What's the best way to get a nice clean detailed image of the Moon with the gear I have, is it simply a case of exposing each photograph properly in terms of shutter speed and ISO, presumably the faster the shutter the better still? And then stacking them to get a cleaner image? 

Or is there anything else I should do to get a nice clean, detailed image?

[Notty]

Hi for moon shots I believe it’s like planetary ie you take depending on the camera movies/as many stills per second as you can then stack them afterwards.

[Bizibilder]

I would suggest taking as many single shots as you feel like with the camera and scope - i usually take about 120-150.  Then stack them and process.  This will give you a far better image than any single shot.  Keep the ISO reasonable or the image may become noisy,  A shutter speed around 1/40 sec or shorter should be OK.  Don't worry about centering the image as freeware called PIPP will do that for you and crop the image as well - do this before stacking by the way.

[MarkAR]

From what I gather many use video and stack the best percentage of shots.

For single images you'll want short exposure time, maybe ISO400 and under expose as necessary. It's pretty bright and easy to blow out the lighter areas.

Also might be worth tweaking the focus a smidge to try and get better all round crispiness.

[smr]

1 minute ago, Bizibilder said:

I would suggest taking as many single shots as you feel like with the camera and scope - i usually take about 120-150.  Then stack them and process.  This will give you a far better image than any single shot.  Keep the ISO reasonable or the image may become noisy,  A shutter speed around 1/40 sec or shorter should be OK.  Don't worry about centering the image as freeware called PIPP will do that for you and crop the image as well - do this before stacking by the way.

Thanks, isn't 1/40th a bit slow for the Moon? From what I remember when shooting it before 1/125th was ok, but the faster the shutter the better?

Is there any need to use my Bahitnov mask or is it fine to just focus on the Moon itself? I guess if I don't need to use it then I can skip alignment and just manually slew over to the Moon?

[smr]

Just now, MarkAR said:

From what I gather many use video and stack the best percentage of shots.

For single images you'll want short exposure time, maybe ISO400 and under expose as necessary. It's pretty bright and easy to blow out the lighter areas.

Also might be worth tweaking the focus a smidge to try and get better all round crispiness.

The concept of using video to create a photo is totally alien to me. I'm used to stacking several photos together with Deepskystacker and that's it. 

Can you explain what you mean by using video please?

My DSLR can only record 30 minute videos at a time.

[MarkAR]

Depending on seeing conditions faster is better, 1/125 will do you good. 

Last night I polar aligned, pointed at the moon and set to Lunar tracking and it stayed dead centre. 

No idea of the ins and outs of video, plenty of recent threads of moon shots, enough info there to give you an idea.

[Notty]

6 minutes ago, smr said:

The concept of using video to create a photo is totally alien to me. I'm used to stacking several photos together with Deepskystacker and that's it. 

Can you explain what you mean by using video please?

My DSLR can only record 30 minute videos at a time.

A video is basically just a sequence of individual frames. Stacking software (autostakkert etc)can disassemble an mpeg  into its component frames.

[Stargazer33]

DSLRs are not ideal for taking astro videos. People use fast frame rate cameras such as the ZWO, QHY, Atik, Starlight Xpress, Celestron, Altair Astro, etc. range of cameras. The principal is the same as what you do in DSS. Using programs like Autostakkert or Registax (freeware), individual video frames are stacked rather than single photo frames. The benefit of fast frame rate video cameras for Luna & planetary imaging is that you capture more 'clean' frames during those brief moments of steady seeing.

[Stargazer33]

Ha! Must type faster! 😉

[Bizibilder]

If you use your DSLR first make sure the video produced is in a format that stacking software can cope with - some formats wont work.  However if you can go that route it is easier in many respects.

P.S. I forgot - if taking single frames use RAW if you can - JPEG is "lossy" and can cause a lower quality final image.  Having said that I usually stack DSLR JPEG's if I use that camera, although normally I now use a specialist video camera.

[smr]

I will be using my DSLR. So just stick to taking single frames?

[michael8554]

Almost every DSLR Video Mode is heavily compressed so unsuitable.

Take single frames at low ISO and stack them using DSS.

Michael