Lunar Images from this morning 5th November

[Roy Foreman]

Lots of passing clouds so this had to be shot in the clear bits between by pausing the capture, then resuming when the next clear patch came past.  Definately not ideal and at no point was I able to capture the full 2000frame that I usually do.

But here are the results.

 

Vital stats :-

Celestron C9.25 XLT

Skywatcher CQ350 mount

ZWO ASI 183MM plus Proplanet 642 IR filter.

30% of between 600 and 1500 frames at 19fps and gain 100

Processed in Autostakkert and Photoshop.

Full disk image plus some selective enlargements made from it.

These are cropped from the full disc, no amplifying lenses used, so may be a little grainy.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

[Mandy D]

@Roy Foreman very, very nice! Images like these give me encouragement. It is always nice to see what I might be able to achieve with the equipment I have, plus a lot of effort on my part.

Well done dodging the clouds and getting such great final results. You must be pleased.

[Roy Foreman]

Thank you Mandy, glad you like my images, and especially glad I have given you hope. It takes practice,  perseverance and many failures before good results start to come. You will get there. And of course there is a wealth of knowledge here on SGL, all you have to do is ask. Good luck, I am sure you will do well.

[Mandy D]

@Roy Foreman My 200P and 300PDS are in near perfect collimation, now, so I just need to switch over from the Nikon D800 to my ASI 178MM, but am still in the process of getting that all set up. Hopefully, as others in here assure me, I will see a step change in results.

Thank you for the encouragement.

[Roy Foreman]

9 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

@Roy Foreman My 200P and 300PDS are in near perfect collimation, now, so I just need to switch over from the Nikon D800 to my ASI 178MM, but am still in the process of getting that all set up. Hopefully, as others in here assure me, I will see a step change in results.

Thank you for the encouragement.

Perfect collimation is the first step to getting great results. The second, in my view, is perfect focus. I often spend 5 mins or more getting it spot on. Not easy on a target that appears to be constantly going in and out of focus. Definately something that needs practise!

Be sure to let us see your results as you progress.

[Mandy D]

On 05/11/2023 at 16:56, Roy Foreman said:

Perfect collimation is the first step to getting great results. The second, in my view, is perfect focus. I often spend 5 mins or more getting it spot on. Not easy on a target that appears to be constantly going in and out of focus. Definately something that needs practise!

Be sure to let us see your results as you progress.

Perfect collimation and perfect focus is definitely what it is about! The Moon was certainly wobbling a fair bit this morning as I tried to get focus and I ended up with just 32 frames bfore cloud ended play.

My final result can be seen here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415300-the-moon-this-morning-33-waning/

It's not the best I've had, but I'm happy with it, given the conditions and lack of time.

[Roy Foreman]

1 hour ago, Mandy D said:

Perfect collimation and perfect focus is definitely what it is about! The Moon was certainly wobbling a fair bit this morning as I tried to get focus and I ended up with just 32 frames bfore cloud ended play.

My final result can be seen here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415300-the-moon-this-morning-33-waning/

It's not the best I've had, but I'm happy with it, given the conditions and lack of time.

I was out imaging the same time as you. As you found the air was not steady and I struggled to get anything that I was happy with. As least your image is half decent !

[Mandy D]

10 minutes ago, Roy Foreman said:

I was out imaging the same time as you. As you found the air was not steady and I struggled to get anything that I was happy with. As least your image is half decent !

Thank you! Yes, I was happy with what I got for the conditions and available time. It's a shame you got nothing useful.

[MalcolmM]

Fabulous pictures! The one of Montes Apenninus is particularly dramatic. 

Malcolm 

[josefk]

Absolutely wonderful - fabulous lighting on these features.

[Roy Foreman]

53 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

Fabulous pictures! The one of Montes Apenninus is particularly dramatic. 

Malcolm 

Thank you Malcolm, much appreciated

[Roy Foreman]

53 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

Fabulous pictures! The one of Montes Apenninus is particularly dramatic. 

Malcolm 

Thank you Malcolm, much appreciated

[Roy Foreman]

43 minutes ago, josefk said:

Absolutely wonderful - fabulous lighting on these features.

Thank you. - makes getting up early worthwhile !

[Bugdozer]

These are fantastic, Roy! Can I ask what scope/camera/processing technique you are using?

[Roy Foreman]

6 hours ago, Bugdozer said:

These are fantastic, Roy! Can I ask what scope/camera/processing technique you are using?

Thank you and glad you like my images. Scope was a Celestron 9.25 xlt and camera was a ZWO 183mm. This is a 20mpx camera with quite a large chip, but a top frame rate of only 19fps. File sizes are huge and require a high end PC to process. 

I take 2000 Frames for each pane and usually stack the best 30% in AS3.

The rest is done in photoshop as follows :-

set black and white points

Sharpen 500/1/0

Camera raw clarity +30

Noise XT at 70/20

Final tweaks to brightness and contrast.

The settings for sharpening and NXT will vary considerably depending on pixel size and image resolution, but these are what I use for my setup.

Hope this helps and guides you in your own imaging.

Cheers

Roy

 

[Bugdozer]

Thanks Roy, that is a lot of frames! But your effort pays off  I really need to work out how to stack lunar images I think.