First Lunar Mosaic

[old_eyes]

I had a good night on 20th August setting up and playing with autoguiding for the first time (see thread).

Deep-sky conditions weren't great as the moon was well up and about 3/4 full. So I thought I would play with a quick lunar mosaic. This is the first time I have tried capturing an AVI, using Registax or creating a mosaic.

I used an Equinox 80ED with an Imaging Source DFK21. With such a short focal length I only needed four panels to cover the moon. I took about 1000 frames for each panel, and processed them in Registax and iMerge to create the mosaic. No tweaking in PS. I used John's (jgs001) mosaic tutorial to guide me. I found his registax process much simpler and easier to understand than the Bob Pilz tutorial on the Registax site. iMerge was very easy to use, and I could imagine making larger mosaics with it.

Lots of things wrong with this:

• I over-exposed the sunlight side quite badly
  
• Not convinced about the focus. I should have zoomed in the live view on my laptop to make sure.
  
• I think I was a bit over aggressive with the wavelet enhancement in Registax
  

However, a very pleasing first trial and encouragement to have another go .

old_eyes

[Dave Smith]

You've clearly caught the bug. Lunar mosaics can be good fun and very rewarding. It is worth using a barlow or imagemate to get higher resolution. Focusing can be very tricky, using a Batinov mask on a nearby star and then going to the Moon helps especially if the seeing isn't that good. Yes you do need to judge the exposure first on the brightest part of the Moon.

An excellent start, look forward to seeing more.

Dave

[astroman001]

Great first mosaic.

regards

Peter

[Steve 1962]

Excellent first go - very well done - I'm just itching now for a break in the clouds so I can have another go!

[old_eyes]

Focusing can be very tricky, using a Batinov mask on a nearby star and then going to the Moon helps especially if the seeing isn't that good.

Good tip, I'll try that next time.

old_eyes