The Official Shoot the Moon Thread

Hard to follow such great images of the moon but I thought I"d post this one anyway.

A single exposure of the 67% waxing gibbous moon last night.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2ca5​YDQ

I love this thread so much

Clear skies presented themselves last night so nipped out with the tracker... took 100 shots in an effort to emulate the stunning images by WestCoastCannuck... have done stacking before but not planetary stuff so have been reading up on it...

This is a single frame edit but I have 100 of these with nothing more than a crop and white balance tweak ready to go through PIPP and Registax6 and see if I can up my moon game

navydoc wrote in post #18732252
Hard to follow such great images of the moon but I thought I"d post this one anyway.

A single exposure of the 67% waxing gibbous moon last night.


[ HOSTED PHOTO DISPLAY FAILED: ATTACH id 938959 has been deleted. ]

Very impressive for a single exposure at what must be a 100% pixel view!

That lens and TC are a deadly combo.

tuffty wrote in post #18732282
I love this thread so much

Clear skies presented themselves last night so nipped out with the tracker... took 100 shots in an effort to emulate the stunning images by WestCoastCannuck... have done stacking before but not planetary stuff so have been reading up on it...

This is a single frame edit but I have 100 of these with nothing more than a crop and white balance tweak ready to go through PIPP and Registax6 and see if I can up my moon game

Hosted photo: posted by tuffty in
./showthread.php?p=187​32282&i=i248054894
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Will post up the results once done (good or bad )

<tuffty/>

Thanks for your kind comment!

Wait.... you have 100 of these?!! This is just lovely at a single - a stack of 100 of them should make a wonderful deep toned and super clean image! I look forward to seeing it! You did not mention what you will use to stack the photos from PIPP? I assume Autostakkert! (2 or 3)? I use Autostakkert!3.

I am just starting on tonights efforts.... not getting my hopes up - pretty "wavey" on my cam.

I really want a tracker. NO>...... NOT a telescope! (yet) But, OK, I want a tracker. I am sure I would enjoy having one once I learned how to use it.

Cheers

Mike

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18732614
Very impressive for a single exposure at what must be a 100% pixel view!

Thanks. It's actually a 125% pixel view. I enlarged the image beyond 100% using Photoshop's "Preserve Details 2" resampling to increase the image size. Uploading directly to POTN also seemed to have over sharpened it a bit so I've added it from my Flickr page now instead.

navydoc wrote in post #18732632
Thanks. It's actually a 125% pixel view. I enlarged the image beyond 100% using Photoshop's "Preserve Details 2" resampling to increase the image size. Uploading directly to POTN also seemed to have over sharpened it a bit so I've added it from my Flickr page now instead.

I wondered! I was trying to wrap my head around the size of the posted image - and the fact that I know you shot it at 560mm with a 24mp FF. lol... I have shot lots with DSLRs. That you upscaled no makes complete sense - and is even MORE impressive!

If you happen to have an APSc you will find it better for the moon. I have a 42mp FF.... but my 24mp APSc is my moon cam.

Cheers! And great work.

Mike

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18732619
Thanks for your kind comment!

Wait.... you have 100 of these?!! This is just lovely at a single - a stack of 100 of them should make a wonderful deep toned and super clean image! I look forward to seeing it! You did not mention what you will use to stack the photos from PIPP? I assume Autostakkert! (2 or 3)? I use Autostakkert!3.

I am just starting on tonights efforts.... not getting my hopes up - pretty "wavey" on my cam.

I really want a tracker. NO>...... NOT a telescope! (yet) But, OK, I want a tracker. I am sure I would enjoy having one once I learned how to use it.

Cheers

Mike

I have a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer... its a relatively cheap mount (£280 in the UK) but is ideal for my requirements... I don't have a telescope either but I am trying to get the best out of the equipment I have already invested in and use for other areas of photography

I took the images in the car port area where I live... I used a Pluto Trigger in timelapse mode to take the 100 shots... the tracker was roughly polar aligned and set to lunar tracking mode... this does keep the moon in frame but doesn't prevent it from moving 100% as the tracker only moves on one axis...

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18732636
I wondered! I was trying to wrap my head around the size of the posted image - and the fact that I know you shot it at 560mm with a 24mp FF. lol... I have shot lots with DSLRs. That you upscaled no makes complete sense - and is even MORE impressive!

If you happen to have an APSc you will find it better for the moon. I have a 42mp FF.... but my 24mp APSc is my moon cam.

Cheers! And great work.

Mike

Thanks again. My sony a7rIII is also a 42mp sensor camera. I also have a Sony a6500 but I find that cropping the FF images or shooting in APS-C mode gives me equally good results. I also normally shoot the moon using my 2x extender rather than the 1.4x but didn't bother to exchange extenders for the above shot.

I'd also like to try a tracker some day. I did manage to get a shot of Mars as well as the Moon the other night but I had to use a different focal length to get them both in the frame.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/29ta​w3C

navydoc wrote in post #18732655
Thanks again. My sony a7rIII is also a 42mp sensor camera. I also have a Sony a6500 but I find that cropping the FF images or shooting in APS-C mode gives me equally good results. I also normally shoot the moon using my 2x extender rather than the 1.4x but didn't bother to exchange extenders for the above shot.

I'd also like to try a tracker some day. I did manage to get a shot of Mars as well as the Moon the other night but I had to use a different focal length to get them both in the frame.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/29ta​w3C Moon and Mars together by Gene, on Flickr

You found equal results? Interesting! With almost the same sensors involved (my A99ii vs your A7riii and my A77ii vs your A6500) I find the A77ii gives me a much better moon shot.

Well... it was not a great seeing night - but with a lot of work I am happy enough with results. I have included the single best frame just processed in LR as a comparison to the stack.

Shot with Sony A77ii, Minolta 400/4.5 + 2X TC
Stack of 200 images (of 208 shot). Processed with PIPP, Autostakkert!3, Astra Image and final touching and resize in LR6. (scaled 80% of original for best screen IQ)

tuffty wrote in post #18732653
I have a SkyWatcher Star Adventurer... its a relatively cheap mount (£280 in the UK) but is ideal for my requirements... I don't have a telescope either but I am trying to get the best out of the equipment I have already invested in and use for other areas of photography

I took the images in the car port area where I live... I used a Pluto Trigger in timelapse mode to take the 100 shots... the tracker was roughly polar aligned and set to lunar tracking mode... this does keep the moon in frame but doesn't prevent it from moving 100% as the tracker only moves on one axis...

Hosted photo: posted by tuffty in
./showthread.php?p=187​32653&i=i189054319
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

I tweaked the white balance and cropped in Lightroom before exporting to TIFF... used PIPP (https://sites.google.c​om/site/astropipp/) to align and pre process the TIFFs (they converted to B&W anyway) then used RegiStax to stack and apply 'wavelets' which is a form of sharpening... don't profess to be an expert in this or to fully under stand the processing but followed a couple of guides and the results seem ok.. I am sure I could do similar in photoshop with practice but here is the finished image... seems to have worked out ok...

Hosted photo: posted by tuffty in
./showthread.php?p=187​32653&i=i164849359
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

<tuffty/>

lol.. I often take mine at home, but I could not get a view so I drove down the street to the school tonight. I just set up on a tripod and with a wired release I press out as many photos as I can take (with a slight pause inbetween frames to let the lens/camera settle) as I can - usually 200-300 frames lately). I have used Registax, but not for long, and it was several years ago. I did not remember that it stacked for you as well. Your stack is good...... but I have to admit, I prefer your single image. I know Registax is excellent.... but I just never got the hang of it. Astra Image is not any easier - but since I paid for it, I stuck with it and I really like it now. I am more after a nice looking image rather than the ultimate in details though.... hehe. 90 percent photographer - 10 percent "astronomer". I look forward to seeing how you progress if you get bit by the bug as bad as me! ))

Edit: more feedback

You cropped in LR before exporting to TIFFs? Why? PIPP will crop for you at parameters you set and preview first before the process.

Another thing I can offer that might help results - for my LR it will automatically default to a sharpening of the files being exported from raw at a setting of 25. You should set this at zero otherwise you are just adding false data to the images being stacked - all your sharpening should be done to the stacked file (also introducing false data - but at the right time!)

Best regards

Mike

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18732678
lol.. I often take mine at home, but I could not get a view so I drove down the street to the school tonight. I just set up on a tripod and with a wired release I press out as many photos as I can take (with a slight pause inbetween frames to let the lens/camera settle) as I can - usually 200-300 frames lately). I have used Registax, but not for long, and it was several years ago. I did not remember that it stacked for you as well. Your stack is good...... but I have to admit, I prefer your single image. I know Registax is excellent.... but I just never got the hang of it. Astra Image is not any easier - but since I paid for it, I stuck with it and I really like it now. I am more after a nice looking image rather than the ultimate in details though.... hehe. 90 percent photographer - 10 percent "astronomer". I look forward to seeing how you progress if you get bit by the bug as bad as me! ))

Edit: more feedback

You cropped in LR before exporting to TIFFs? Why? PIPP will crop for you at parameters you set and preview first before the process.

Another thing I can offer that might help results - for my LR it will automatically default to a sharpening of the files being exported from raw at a setting of 25. You should set this at zero otherwise you are just adding false data to the images being stacked - all your sharpening should be done to the stacked file (also introducing false data - but at the right time!)

Best regards

Mike

I cropped mainly to get the file sizes down... I did spot the crop option in PIPP afterwards but didn't use it... will try it next time

I think I may have over done the 'wavelets' a bit tbh... still trying to get my head around it...

I see what you mean about default sharpening... will have another go later in the week and try and get the image looking less 'processed'

Always some thing to learn with this stuff huh

<tuffty/>

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18732619
I really want a tracker. NO>...... NOT a telescope! (yet) But, OK, I want a tracker. I am sure I would enjoy having one once I learned how to use it.

Cheers

Mike

A tracker would open a lot of doors, not just for things like higher resolution lunar imaging, but astrophotography in general.

You could then push that lens you have to the next level (Minolta 400, F4.5). You can get a lot more resolution out of that aperture, that's 88mm aperture, that's practically a 90mm refractor telescope, literally. You can take that lens to F18 with two 2.0x TC's and it will not lose potential resolution. Your camera's pixel pitch is 4.5um. So, around F22 is where it will top out for sampling. Longer than F22 will over-sample (gain nothing). Undersampling (shorter than F22) is ideal here. F18 puts you right in the sweet spot to get as much resolution out your lens as you can for your pixel size on your camera. Again, that Minolta is basically a 90mm refractor.

It's just not easy with a handful of still images. If you switch to using your dSLR for video you will get hundreds or a thousand frames much faster, to beat the seeing (imaging no slower than 10ms exposure time to freeze the atmospheric seeing). Imaging at 10ms (1/100s) as your slowest exposure time, push ISO to whatever it takes to fill your histogram and stacking to restore signal to noise and reduce random noise.

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #18732695
A tracker would open a lot of doors, not just for things like higher resolution lunar imaging, but astrophotography in general.

You could then push that lens you have to the next level (Minolta 400, F4.5). You can get a lot more resolution out of that aperture, that's 88mm aperture, that's practically a 90mm refractor telescope, literally. You can take that lens to F18 with two 2.0x TC's and it will not lose potential resolution. Your camera's pixel pitch is 4.5um. So, around F22 is where it will top out for sampling. Longer than F22 will over-sample (gain nothing). Undersampling (shorter than F22) is ideal here. F18 puts you right in the sweet spot to get as much resolution out your lens as you can for your pixel size on your camera. Again, that Minolta is basically a 90mm refractor.

It's just not easy with a handful of still images. If you switch to using your dSLR for video you will get hundreds or a thousand frames much faster, to beat the seeing (imaging no slower than 10ms exposure time to freeze the atmospheric seeing). Imaging at 10ms (1/100s) as your slowest exposure time, push ISO to whatever it takes to fill your histogram and stacking to restore signal to noise and reduce random noise.

Very best,

WOW! Thanks SO much Martin! THIS is the info I have wanted to hear for quite some time - how to get the most out of what I have. I have been wanting to try two 2X TC's... but was unsure whether it would gain me anything.... and I have read about using video - nice to hear I can try it! So... a tracker it is. Won't be any time soon, but it is "next". Have to start thinking about a budget now... then look at the options. If I get itchy.... well.... I don't use my 300/2.8 all that much - I could always sell that. Wait..... you will probably tell me I should be using THAT lens right? Its deadly sharp.... but absolutely horrible CA in spite of being an APO. hehe

All my moon shots are done with 2 scopes, both are cheap with one is a bit expensive but cheaper than many L lenses anyway and it will give much better results for the moon, all using a tracker, i bought the tracker and it changed my astro life, i can't look back now, and even if i use 10x with L lens it won't be any better than a cheap scope with a tracker unless i use the lens with a tracker and a fast video camera, so the lens isn't everything here.