First ever Lunar photo.

[JB80]

Hi, I thought I would share one of the first pictures I took of the Moon I took on the 24th of August a few weeks back. It was taken through the eypiece with my Kodak P&S and I have a few more different shots as well I can post, I did slightly alter the contrast and brightness in registax but if I am to be honest I have no idea how to use that at all so I was just changing random things around.

I do have a DSLR but I am waiting for my order to be shipped before I get my T-ring and some other bits. If anybody has any ideas on what I can do to improve the pic I'm all ears.

thanks

Jarrod.

[Rob1961]

Hi Jarrod that is a very nice image to have considering the subject (Moon at near full). The contrast and brightness may be brought down a touch - to some extent it is a personal thing. Myself I tend to use GIMP for last 'tweaks' as it is cost effective (ie zero). Very impressive image though. Congratulations.

Rob

[Rob1961]

Hi Jarrod, hope you don't object but I used GIMP on your image and altered the Brightness/contast as levels. Youe focussing was spot on for this difficult time of viewing.

I wish my first images had been as good

Rob

Jarrod.bmp

[JB80]

Thanks Rob for the good feedback, I wasn't too sure about it as it was my first try but am also proud of it as a first go as well if that makes sense.

I don't object at all to the changes, infact I think that looks great. I think I will download GIMP and have a go at trying to get the same sort of look, it should give me something to do tomorrow. If all goes well I'll post a couple of pics of the ones through the 10mm EP as well.

Thanks again.

[Bizibilder]

Nice image Pibbles! I use GIMP too and find it ok for "tweaking" shots of the Moon. It works for DSO's as well but does have some major drawbacks over "commercial" software - which is why I'm saving my pennies for an early Xmas pressie!!. The other thing GIMP is good for is "playing" with your ordinary snapshots!! You can turn the "ordinary" into the "spectacular" quite easily!!

[JB80]

Thanks.

I can't seem to get a English download of GIMP because it reads my location and gives the local language. I will keep searching the Dutch version for the language change I think. I do have a trial version of PS so if I can't get it I'll fiddle with that.

[johnh]

Not bad first image, you should go for the lowest ISO and Rob is right about being too bright affecting contrast. Are you using eyepiece projection with the DSLR or Prime Focus Barlow?

JohnH.

[JB80]

No that wasn't taken with my dslr, it was just my little kodak point and shoot held up to the eyepiece. I'm still waiting on some adaptors to come before I even try with my dslr.The ISO was set on auto, I think it goes down to 80 so i should try that maybe?

[JB80]

OK, just a couple more pics I took on the night, I changed the contrast and brightness on these, they have lost a bit around the edges though. Hopefully when my parts come in I can get some better pics with a better camera.

[cyclone]

hey i made a small adjustment to your photo, hope you don't mind

[JB80]

No, I don't mind at all. Can I ask what you used and what setting you applied?

Also here is another one from last night, I'm not as happy with it

it's still too bright, but my boy keeps mashing the keyboard and making things hard so I will have a try again when I can concentrate more.

[jgs001]

That's a very good start, and far from the easiest way of doing it. You've caught some surface colour variations in the image too.

[JB80]

Thanks, at the moment I am only really trying things out and as you say it's not the easiest way but it's all I have at my disposal right now and I am surprised that the pictures are turning out so good, it gets me excited for when I can set things up properly.

[cyclone]

hi pibbles, i can't remember the exact settings i used, but, the programs i used were preview, iPhoto and Aperture 3 in mac os x

[cyclone]

hi again pibbles i made a bit of an adjustment to your latest photo i was able to bring down the brightness a bit at the bottom of the pic so the crater is easier to see, i made the adjustments with Preview and iPhoto. hope you like it

[JB80]

Hi again. That looks more like what i was wanting to get, it looks much better.

I definitely need to get better acquainted with the software, need to spend some time figuring it all out.

[cyclone]

it looks ok but still a bit yellowish i did some more tinkering with it to try and get a more grey colour but it didn't turn out as-well as i'd hoped