Moon on the 14th Nov

[neil phillips]

Seeing wasn't great. But with high elevation good cooldown and good focus. Detail was coming through. 

I usually run through pipp first. i may try later as it takes ages. So just straight into AS/3 no cleaning up.

Tried a few colour shots with the 462c camera. And ADC with 2x Celestron ultima Barlow. So fairly hi resolution. for colour work. The 462 is not the best for this i don't think. because of the known colour bleed problems, it has. But a couple of captures processed quite well. especially Clavius which in places actually looks 3d to my old eyes. Considering the seeing i was surprised how they came out. What i need is some good seeing at high elevation. Hopefully when i get my new mount and a 12" Scope running in the future. The second run of captures on the 14th were Mono with the ZWO 178 and IR685 Filter. which helped the disturbed seeing a bit.  All images downsized to 75% from capture size. Click or open on separate page for full size.

Orion 245mm Newtonian F6.3 

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by neil phillips

[geoflewis]

Lovely images Neil. I’m curious when you say the 462MC sensor has colour bleed. What does that mean and how do you recognise it, as I got that camera in part to try some colour lunar images?

[neil phillips]

6 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Lovely images Neil. I’m curious when you say the 462MC sensor has colour bleed. What does that mean and how do you recognise it, as I got that camera in part to try some colour lunar images?

Hi Geoff the Guys on CN were discussing the fact. that it appears to have the colours bleed into the other colours. From what i remember specifically blue going into red. Again, from what i remember it's a colour separation problem. or in this case poor colour separation. 

[Kon]

Stunning images and details. The colour ones do have a 3D feeling to them, I love them. Your second to last monochrome has captured the rilles and rays (if that's the correct terminology for the shallower channels) excellently!

[neil phillips]

3 hours ago, Kon said:

Stunning images and details. The colour ones do have a 3D feeling to them, I love them. Your second to last monochrome has captured the rilles and rays (if that's the correct terminology for the shallower channels) excellently!

Cheers kon when summer comes hoping to get some good seeing. Winter isn't giving much so far.

[StuartT]

Outstanding work Neil, as always. I'm trying to put your tips into practice but so far can't get near this quality.

[neil phillips]

25 minutes ago, StuartT said:

Outstanding work Neil, as always. I'm trying to put your tips into practice but so far can't get near this quality.

Cheers Stuart did you try when it was this high ? if not i would say try again when its very high. So even if seeing isn't the best. You can still get some detail coming through. Also try high power crater shots two or three. then refocus two or three. Refocus again. Do this until you find your feet. By doing this you hope to get a couple of shots close to good focus. Once you get some sharp shots under your belt. Your confidence will grow. I took a chance with these. Only focused once on both colour and mono (took ages being certain though) Putting all my eggs in one basket is a bit risky even with experience. But i was running out of time. Luckily i nailed focus both attempts. But sometimes I can be ever so slightly not optimal. It's the difference sometimes from a good shot. to a great one. Assuming reasonable seeing of course. 

[StuartT]

15 hours ago, neil phillips said:

Cheers Stuart did you try when it was this high ? if not i would say try again when its very high. So even if seeing isn't the best. You can still get some detail coming through. Also try high power crater shots two or three. then refocus two or three. Refocus again. Do this until you find your feet. By doing this you hope to get a couple of shots close to good focus. Once you get some sharp shots under your belt. Your confidence will grow. I took a chance with these. Only focused once on both colour and mono (took ages being certain though) Putting all my eggs in one basket is a bit risky even with experience. But i was running out of time. Luckily i nailed focus both attempts. But sometimes I can be ever so slightly not optimal. It's the difference sometimes from a good shot. to a great one. Assuming reasonable seeing of course. 

yes, it was pretty high. Up at 60 deg or so. Problem is, my view is limited to the region NE round to S, so I can't image at first quarter and imaging at last quarter means being up in the small hours, so I am tired all day at work! Imaging at full moon is a) not high enough and b) full moon is rather boring from a light/shadow point of view

By the way, what is a good image scale for the moon? I mostly shoot DSOs and there an image scale of about 0.8-2 arcsec/px is best (depending on seeing). But what about lunar? I read somewhere that your focal ratio for lunar should be 5x pixel size. I am using 4.5um pixels in my camera which suggests that my f/10 (native Edge HD) is significantly undersampling. Should I be using a Barlow then?

Edited November 16, 2022 by StuartT

[neil phillips]

2 hours ago, StuartT said:

yes, it was pretty high. Up at 60 deg or so. Problem is, my view is limited to the region NE round to S, so I can't image at first quarter and imaging at last quarter means being up in the small hours, so I am tired all day at work! Imaging at full moon is a) not high enough and b) full moon is rather boring from a light/shadow point of view

By the way, what is a good image scale for the moon? I mostly shoot DSOs and there an image scale of about 0.8-2 arcsec/px is best (depending on seeing). But what about lunar? I read somewhere that your focal ratio for lunar should be 5x pixel size. I am using 4.5um pixels in my camera which suggests that my f/10 (native Edge HD) is significantly undersampling. Should I be using a Barlow then?

Hi Stuart, yes, the pitfalls of obscured views. And yes aim for 5x your pixel size should put you where you want to be. Good luck

[StuartT]

20 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

Hi Stuart, yes, the pitfalls of obscured views. And yes aim for 5x your pixel size should put you where you want to be. Good luck

Thanks. So this may explain why my images are not very sharp. I've been imaging at about double this image scale.

[neil phillips]

33 minutes ago, StuartT said:

Thanks. So this may explain why my images are not very sharp. I've been imaging at about double this image scale.

That sounds too much in fact even 4x might be better depending on filter. I am bit high at F12.6 with IR  685 but cannot get focus with Barlow screwed straight onto camera. I've tried.

Edited November 16, 2022 by neil phillips

[Joef]

Very Impressive, the detail is amazing 

[neil phillips]

Many thanks Joef

[Astrophysical Graffiti]

These are wonderful images.

[neil phillips]

31 minutes ago, Astrophysical Graffiti said:

These are wonderful images.

Many thanks AG