At last, a first imaging attempt!

[JonH]

I decided that it was high time yesterday that I bolted my camera to the scope and take that first tentative step on the imaging ladder. So after woofing down a handful of frazzled bangers off the barbecue and washing 'em down with a few cold one's from the beer fridge, I set up and zeroed in on the moon. My plan was to shoot at twilight before the sky became too dark to register tone.

I'm fairly pleased with my efforts, albeit a little disappointed with the sharpness of the files. This is probably due to the seeing, I suppose, and also not giving my scope adequate time to cool down. But then, maybe those San Miguels didn't help either.

The camera was a Canon 1ds Mk 3 with mirror locked up and a angle finder attached to aid focussing. Processing was done in CS3 with quite a bit of Unsharp Mask applied, a procedure I avoid like the plague with my regular workflow. If an image that's to be submitted to a photo library needs sharpening I would normally use a little High Pass, but only if really necessary.

After darkness fell I finished off my evening with a couple of hours just exploring the moon's surface with high power eyepieces. A fantastic night.

[Psychobilly]

Nice and crisp against a blue sky

Excellent :)

Peter...

[JonH]

Thanks for the kind words Peter, pretty basic stuff, but we all gotta start somewhere.

[Euan]

That's really good

It's quite hard to get a sharp pic of the moon without a high frame rate camera, you really need the seeing to be quite still

[JonH]

Thanks Euan, I did wonder if it was the seeing but then I also thought that it wouldn't have had such an effect on wide view imaging. What I should do, I guess, is shoot something stationary like a house to check out the scope's sharpness.

[barkis]

Your imaging career is off to a flyer Jon. It is a fine shot of the moon indeed.

One tip though, have the booze after the imaging session, not before. The Beefburgers are fine though, as long as you keep the fatty fingerprints off the camera. :D.

Ron.

[cloudbuster]

Hi JohnH

Nice image...better than my first effort (see my album!!!!).

I'm a newbee also, & there's nothing wrong with mixing a few San Miguels with this great hobby of ours!!!!!

cheers

bob

[Beyond_Vision]

Sounds like a perfect evening and a very nice first image as well.

Regards

Kevin

[JonH]

Actually Ron, if you'd been here you would've laid off the beefburgers too!

I've been earning a crust as a photographer for 25 years but astrophotography is a whole new ball game, and then some.

[Nick Smith]

Nicely done, focus looks pretty good to me

Cheers

Nick

[Catanonia]

Well that is an excellent first start and you should be proud. A really nice moon there.

[JonH]

Thanks again for all the very encouraging comments, it's really appreciated.