The Official Shoot the Moon Thread

Getting back into shooting the moon again and tried my hand at a small stack of images (80/100). I see images like Mike's above and would love to be able to take something like that but don't think I could invest the amount of money I would need for a really nice scope. So I will settle for my Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ and Tamron 1.4x teleconverter.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2hiz​yoU

Couple pics from last night. 1 min video stacked in AutoStakkert and sharpened in RegiStax. Final touch-up in Photoshop.

Slagrim wrote in post #18930873
Couple pics from last night. 1 min video stacked in AutoStakkert and sharpened in RegiStax. Final touch-up in Photoshop.

Hosted photo: posted by Slagrim in
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forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Hosted photo: posted by Slagrim in
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Nice detail in these.

HaroldC3 wrote in post #18930838
Getting back into shooting the moon again and tried my hand at a small stack of images (80/100). I see images like Mike's above and would love to be able to take something like that but don't think I could invest the amount of money I would need for a really nice scope. So I will settle for my Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ and Tamron 1.4x teleconverter.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2hiz​yoU Moon 092119 by Harold Carlson, on Flickr

Here are a couple of full res crops.

Hosted photo: posted by HaroldC3 in
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forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Hosted photo: posted by HaroldC3 in
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forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Harold,
You are doing a fine job with the equipment you own! Keep up the good work.

To many clouds tonight where I live.......

Slagrim wrote in post #18930873
Couple pics from last night. 1 min video stacked in AutoStakkert and sharpened in RegiStax. Final touch-up in Photoshop.

Hosted photo: posted by Slagrim in
./showthread.php?p=189​30873&i=i122050351
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Hosted photo: posted by Slagrim in
./showthread.php?p=189​30873&i=i251126677
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Very nice job!!!

Ballen Photo wrote in post #18930886
Nice detail in these.

Thank you.

Inspeqtor wrote in post #18930923
Very nice job!!!

Thank you.

HaroldC3 wrote in post #18930838
Getting back into shooting the moon again and tried my hand at a small stack of images (80/100). I see images like Mike's above and would love to be able to take something like that but don't think I could invest the amount of money I would need for a really nice scope. So I will settle for my Celestron PowerSeeker 80EQ and Tamron 1.4x teleconverter.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2hiz​yoU Moon 092119 by Harold Carlson, on Flickr

Here are a couple of full res crops.

Hosted photo: posted by HaroldC3 in
./showthread.php?p=189​30838&i=i83017932
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Hosted photo: posted by HaroldC3 in
./showthread.php?p=189​30838&i=i64147416
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

This is really nice work Harold! Your scope is ideal for great whole moon captures actually. Keep up the great work! I happily used a similar setup for a few years - just lately branching out.

Thanks on your comment on my pics! - they were actually not shot with a telescope though! They were shot with a 300mm F2.8 camera lens plus a teleconverter (about a 100mm "aperture" in telescope terms)- but using an 20mp planetary camera which ekes out much more detail than a dslr. The camera has much smaller pixels and can take many, many more images - 2 minute uncompressed vid was 1650 frames - 32GB of raw data!! I stacked 200 of those to obtain the image I took the crops from.

I still have not had a chance to really use my scopes yet. This was the setup for my posted pics (plus a 3X converter not attached yet - and sitting at far right on the box)

Slagrim wrote in post #18930873
Couple pics from last night. 1 min video stacked in AutoStakkert and sharpened in RegiStax. Final touch-up in Photoshop.

Hosted photo: posted by Slagrim in
./showthread.php?p=189​30873&i=i122050351
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Hosted photo: posted by Slagrim in
./showthread.php?p=189​30873&i=i251126677
forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Really like the first of these with Copernicus. Great work!

Cheers

Mike

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18931045
This is really nice work Harold! Your scope is ideal for great whole moon captures actually. Keep up the great work! I happily used a similar setup for a few years - just lately branching out.

Thanks on your comment on my pics! - they were actually not shot with a telescope though! They were shot with a 300mm F2.8 camera lens plus a teleconverter (about a 100mm "aperture" in telescope terms)- but using an 20mp planetary camera which ekes out much more detail than a dslr. The camera has much smaller pixels and can take many, many more images - 2 minute uncompressed vid was 1650 frames - 32GB of raw data!! I stacked 200 of those to obtain the image I took the crops from.

I still have not had a chance to really use my scopes yet. This was the setup for my posted pics (plus a 3X converter not attached yet - and sitting at far right on the box)

Thanks for sharing. Have you mentioned what tracking hardware you use?

navydoc wrote in post #18931058
Thanks for sharing. Have you mentioned what tracking hardware you use?

I believe I have..... somewhere. But not here. I did a LOT of research into a mount purchase - as you can see, I don't have a place to shoot at home other than my driveway, so my set-up needed to be portable. It also needs to be a fast set-up - like 15 minutes to shooting with my lenses while giving my scopes time to cool. On breaks at work, I will likely just use my lenses. My interest is in the moon primarily, and maybe some planetary at some point. Because of this, and the the fact that EQ takes longer to set-up, I went with an ALT AZ type of mount which tracks quite accurately enough for planetary imaging. Very happy with my purchase so far - I got the iOptron AZ Mount Pro with the 2 inch tripod. Rated for 33 pounds on primary plus counterweights and can have two scopes. Plenty for my needs.

Cheers!!


Mike

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18931161
I believe I have..... somewhere. But not here. I did a LOT of research into a mount purchase - as you can see, I don't have a place to shoot at home other than my driveway, so my set-up needed to be portable. It also needs to be a fast set-up - like 15 minutes to shooting with my lenses while giving my scopes time to cool. On breaks at work, I will likely just use my lenses. My interest is in the moon primarily, and maybe some planetary at some point. Because of this, and the the fact that EQ takes longer to set-up, I went with an ALT AZ type of mount which tracks quite accurately enough for planetary imaging. Very happy with my purchase so far - I got the iOptron AZ Mount Pro with the 2 inch tripod. Rated for 33 pounds on primary plus counterweights and can have two scopes. Plenty for my needs.

Cheers!!

Mike

Thanks for the response. I too only have a driveway available to set up for lunar photography. I assumed that since you shot video/timelapse to get so many shots to run through your stacking program, you used some sort of tracking device. I've been thinking about the ioptron pro mount and just need to try it to see if I can find the north star OK. I have a street light in the direction I need to align to that makes seeing the night sky difficult.

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18931047
Really like the first of these with Copernicus. Great work!

Cheers

Mike

Thank you Mike! Copernicus crater is one of my favorite objects on the Moon. I took lot of shots of the crater at different Moon stages and all of them looking nice.

navydoc wrote in post #18931165
Thanks for the response. I too only have a driveway available to set up for lunar photography. I assumed that since you shot video/timelapse to get so many shots to run through your stacking program, you used some sort of tracking device. I've been thinking about the ioptron pro mount and just need to try it to see if I can find the north star OK. I have a street light in the direction I need to align to that makes seeing the night sky difficult.

You don't need the pole star! Not with ALT AZ mount, only with EQ. The unit does all the work itself actually.... you just have to fine tune left and right a bit usually.

Here is a little vid showing set-up... though as I say, you do have to tweak it a bit. I have only used mine a few times, and could not see what it pointed at for alignment (clouds, whatever...) it did not matter, I just confirmed position anyway, and told it to go to the moon, and adjusted on it and it tracked fine. Not ideal I am sure... but it has worked anyway.

See a vid here.... daytime, but it goes through the motions. I am sure there are better vids out there.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=v3nNHwQLnfA

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #18931354
You don't need the pole star! Not with ALT AZ mount, only with EQ. The unit does all the work itself actually.... you just have to fine tune left and right a bit usually.

Here is a little vid showing set-up... though as I say, you do have to tweak it a bit. I have only used mine a few times, and could not see what it pointed at for alignment (clouds, whatever...) it did not matter, I just confirmed position anyway, and told it to go to the moon, and adjusted on it and it tracked fine. Not ideal I am sure... but it has worked anyway.

See a vid here.... daytime, but it goes through the motions. I am sure there are better vids out there.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=v3nNHwQLnfA

That is really cool that is will self align! WOW!!!