First attempts at some lunar imaging

[step_hen]

Well with the moon washing out any suitable DSO target from my location on the first clear night I've had available since January, I thought I'd go along with 'can't beat it, join it' and have a go at some lunar imaging for the first time. 

I've been slowly accumulating some suitable gear over these cloudy months to put together a setup for lunar/solar/planetary imaging and yesterday downloaded Sharpcap, Autostakkert and Registax for capturing, stacking and wavelet processing respectively. 

These are best 100 frames each out of 2000 captured with Asi662mc, IR cut filter and 6" classical cassegrain at native f12. I'm very happy with these for a first go, especially as I guessed most of the settings! Advice and any pointers very welcome 

 

Sinus Iridum

Clavius area

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by step_hen

[astrolulu]

Hi, the photos look very promising, congratulations! They are well exposed, which is not easy considering the large differences in the brightness of objects on the lunar surface. I believe that the photos would benefit if they were slightly reduced in size and sharpened after such an operation. Right now, on a 1:1 scale, we see graininess and other artifacts, such as traces of atmospheric dispersion. Meanwhile, the topic is the surface of the moon and in my opinion it is worth making sure that artifacts do not distract attention from this topic.