First Lunar Image - Advice needed please

[causerino]

Hello,

Last night I was watching the moon through my scope, through clouds and then all of a sudden I got a break in the clouds at around 2am and decided to try out the SPC900 to see how it works, learn how to focus it and then play with the results etc.

My image came out like this:

I am pleased with it for my first go, but I would quite like to know why I couldn't get it in focus.

I was using a Skywatcher 130P on an eq2 mount, with a 2x barlow. Using an eyepiece I was able to get into really fine detail, but just couldn't focus with the camera that sharply.

I used wxastrocapture an registax to sort the picture out afterwards.

From what I have read I should be able to get really detailed images, or am I incorrect?

(Imaging isn't a major concern of mine at the moment, I want to get into it properly in the future, money permitting. But I would quite like to show people what I can see if they have never looked through a telescope before)

[barkis]

I may have been poor seeing rather than a focus problem.

How many frames did you have? The software you use can sort the good ones and stack those. If some poor frames have sneaked in to the stack, they will have spoiled the result. The human eye is forgiving, but the camera is brutally honest.

Ron.

[causerino]

I believe it was 775 frames, of which 107 were stacked (the quality option was set to 80%)

I'll give it another go when I can get a completely clear sky on it and see if I can get some better results from it.

[The Bat]

The on-screen image wobbles in and out of focus a lot due to the atmospheric turbulence, which does make it difficult to find focus. Wait for moments when it seems steadier and use these to try and find what looks to you like best focus. Capture some videos, then readjust focus slightly either side of where you were and capture some more. Hopfeully then one of them will give you a reasonably good focus when you process. Choose a good reference frame.

It's not a bad start, though. Keep at it.

Rachel