shooting the moon...

[Astro Waves]

I wanna have a proper go at shooting the moon rather than just taking a single image and working on that. Is it necessary to take calibration frames? 

 

Cheers

[happy-kat]

For the Moon tend to take video so no calibration files used.

What will you be shooting the Moon with?

Edited February 17, 2022 by happy-kat

[Elp]

Because the moon is so bright you can generally get away with taking single frames, obviously take more than one photo so you can choose the best. Seeing due to weather can make a difference hence why people stack but it's not the same as planetary or solar imaging I find.

[Astro Waves]

2 hours ago, happy-kat said:

For the Moon tend to take video so no calibration files used.

What will you be shooting the Moon with?

ahhhh I see. I'll be using the ASI294mc-pro as I'm pretty sure you can do video on that. Would you recommend any software to process the video?

 

Are there any differences in stacking video frames and imaging frames? 

[happy-kat]

The video stacking software handles selecting the best frames, I like using Registax to process but autostakkert is easier to use, the wavelet sharpening is excellent in registax.

For capture sharpcap or. Firecapture or asicam on a mobile device. Can do raw video you take a minute or so of high frame rate, select a ROI it helps keep frame rate higher as not capturing lots of black blank sky.

 

[happy-kat]

Depending on what image of the Moon you are after you could also try using your guide camera as it's probably got smaller pixels.

[Elp]

14 hours ago, Astro Waves said:

Are there any differences in stacking video frames and imaging frames? 

Depending on the camera being used, the video resolution and video compression container method, imaging in raw tiff/fits is usually higher resolution. Remember a video is only a collection of images depending on your frames per second, if they're saved as anything other than lossless format single images will be better quality. If you're looking to stack this difference becomes more minimal somewhat. The process of stacking is the same.

Capturing video can also fail at times usually rendering your capture file corrupt, though the benefit is theres only one file to "handle".

[vlaiv]

For capture use SharpCap.

I usually take full set of calibration videos. PIPP will do "video calibration" for you.

Use ROI - figure out what is diffraction limited field of your scope and then use ROI that is smaller than this region.

For best resolution - go for critical sampling which is f-ratio = 4 x pixel size (or x 2 / 500nm that is x 2 / 0.5 in microns or x 4 in the end).

With ASI294 you'll need to barlow to ~F/18.5.

Use high gain and very short exposure times - about 5ms or less.

Take video with at least couple dozen of thousands of subs. Keep few top percent when stacking. Use AS!3 for stacking.

If FOV is smaller than whole moon - create mosaics with multiple panels. Shoot each panel in the same way. Use Microsoft ICE (no longer available but you should be able to find download link somewhere) or iMerge or similar software for stitching.

In the end use Registax6 with wavelets for sharpening.

There are bunch of tutorials on youtube that show you the workflow - so check them out.

[drjolo]

All the things vlaiv described plus monitor the histogram, so the image is not saturated in highlights - there is no way to recover details in saturated areas. 

What scope do you plan to use?

[Astro Waves]

it feels like theres more to think about than when shooting a DSO! hah.

On 18/02/2022 at 18:23, drjolo said:

All the things vlaiv described plus monitor the histogram, so the image is not saturated in highlights - there is no way to recover details in saturated areas. 

What scope do you plan to use?

I would just be using my Redcat 51 to shoot with.

[happy-kat]

Have fun trying this new target, at least it gives a target when it is big and bright.

 

Edited February 20, 2022 by happy-kat