The Official Shoot the Moon Thread

4matic wrote in post #19100283
Using Mike's advice (thank you kindly sir) had a go today at the waxing gibbous, lens 200-600 with 1.4X TC. I shortlisted 2 images would like to hear which is better, and personally I feel the 2nd image is better.

A MOST excellent result!! ))))))

Indeed, the second one is a bit brighter, and has more pop. You could possibly have achieved the same with the first by ramping ISO up just a little - but quite likely you have nailed the best settings for this shot on the second image.

I warn you though..... this moon thing can be addictive. I started where you are a few years ago and happily pursued more and more resolution with my DSLR kit with longer and longer focal lengths and stacking images.... but eventually, I dove into astro gear and it has evolved into a SECOND equally expensive and time consuming hobby! (though very gratifying) LOL

Cheers

Mike

Also Using Mike's advice (thank you very much), which I feel has vastly improved my moon photography since last nights efforts.

Any feedback much appreciated

PSteven wrote in post #19100350
Also Using Mike's advice (thank you very much), which I feel has vastly improved my moon photography since last nights efforts.

Any feedback much appreciated

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

love the detail and contrast in the craters as well as the subtle shades of grey
very crisp image-well done

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #19100292
A MOST excellent result!! ))))))

Indeed, the second one is a bit brighter, and has more pop. You could possibly have achieved the same with the first by ramping ISO up just a little - but quite likely you have nailed the best settings for this shot on the second image.

I warn you though..... this moon thing can be addictive. I started where you are a few years ago and happily pursued more and more resolution with my DSLR kit with longer and longer focal lengths and stacking images.... but eventually, I dove into astro gear and it has evolved into a SECOND equally expensive and time consuming hobby! (though very gratifying) LOL

Cheers

Mike

Thank you very much Mike really appreciate your comments. Please don’t, I just can’t afford to go there, and I hear you all too well. All too well, sigh.

PSteven wrote in post #19100350
Also Using Mike's advice (thank you very much), which I feel has vastly improved my moon photography since last nights efforts.

Any feedback much appreciated

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forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Think you got that nicely.

PSteven wrote in post #19100350
Also Using Mike's advice (thank you very much), which I feel has vastly improved my moon photography since last nights efforts.

Any feedback much appreciated

Hosted photo: posted by PSteven in
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A lovely image! Yes, nice crisp details and good exposure.

Something that needs to be pointed out about 4matic's effort is "seeing" (atmospheric steadiness) . Given similar equipment, 4matic will with good technique be often able to attain better results than most of the rest of us poor shmucks due to the much better seeing that UAE has in general. Seeing around "4/5" is typical there - my own seeing in my driveway has never reached a 4/5 in comparison.

Very best regards

Mike

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #19100528
A lovely image! Yes, nice crisp details and good exposure.

Something that needs to be pointed out about 4matic's effort is "seeing" (atmospheric steadiness) . Given similar equipment, 4matic will with good technique be often able to attain better results than most of the rest of us poor shmucks due to the much better seeing that UAE has in general. Seeing around "4/5" is typical there - my own seeing in my driveway has never reached a 4/5 in comparison.

Very best regards

Mike

Thank you very much Mike for the feedback and for suggesting settings to try. The settings work very well indeed.

Aha I did think 4matics shot was rather awesome and assumed he also has an advantage shooting with a 200-600 with 1.4X TC?

Anyway I am very happy with my shot so thanks again.

Out of interest, is there a best time of day to shoot the moon? I shot mine when the sky was still blue as it seemed quite clear and I had a window of opportunity.

Also would a star tracker be of any use shooting the moon? I read you mentioned stacking images of the moon too. I have bought a star tracker to have a play with shooting the night sky so I have a feeling I may be giving in to this addiction already.

4matic wrote in post #19098732
This evening Waxing Crescent, specially for Inspeqtor tried out with the 2X TC. Lens FE 200-600.

Thank you! Sorry I am bit late to the party... was visiting my daughter, husband and son in the confederate state of Virginia.

I say confederate because when I made purchases there the change I received back was not the same as the change I get here in the northern state of Indiana!

I will show you the change in another thread that I have yet to make.

I will provide a link when that project is done.

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #19099279
Last night's 34.8 percent..... as you can see, I almost did not catch it! Here, just about to drop below my neighbors roof, it was just barely dark enough to shoot with the gear I had set up with.

Full here: https://www.astrobin.c​om …stCoastCannuck&​real=&mod=

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Excellent job as always with your setup! The clarity is perfect

Interesting you took a shot showing us how close the moon was going behind your neighbors roof!!!!

Raikyn wrote in post #19099449
Single shot last night

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2jpV​jou Moon by Marc, on Flickr

Excellent shot!

PSteven wrote in post #19099812
I can't compete with the amazing shots some of you guys are posting but I am hoping to improve

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forum: Astronomy & Celestial

Yours look dang good to me!

PSteven wrote in post #19100605
Thank you very much Mike for the feedback and for suggesting settings to try. The settings work very well indeed.

Aha I did think 4matics shot was rather awesome and assumed he also has an advantage shooting with a 200-600 with 1.4X TC?

Anyway I am very happy with my shot so thanks again.

Out of interest, is there a best time of day to shoot the moon? I shot mine when the sky was still blue as it seemed quite clear and I had a window of opportunity.

Also would a star tracker be of any use shooting the moon? I read you mentioned stacking images of the moon too. I have bought a star tracker to have a play with shooting the night sky so I have a feeling I may be giving in to this addiction already.

You are very welcome!! If your tracker can track the moon, then YES! But, it is only useful if you plan on stacking a lot of images. Shooting the moon uses short enough exposures for sharp stills, unlike astrophotography that NEEDS a tracker for the much longer exposures. Stacking even just a few frames can reduce noise which can result in a nicer, cleaner looking image with more apparent detail. The learning curve here is a little steep at first, but very satisfying to those that are hooked on the moon! A tracker will enable you to shoot many, many more frames for stacking giving you a file with much greater signal to noise ratio that can take more "pushing" in the processing, but not really necessary for DSLR work. I use to setup my tripod and wired release for my DSLR and I could usually manage about 100 or so shots (allowing a second or two between for the shutter-shock shake to still) . It was plenty enough for me. I have never gotten around to writing any tutorials, but with some googling you can dig out lots of info. I can point you in the right direction though for learning stacking.

First though... to answer your question on daytime shooting of the moon - dusk and sunrise are the best times for blue sky shooting, the closer, the better. Seeing tends to "settle" around this time.

Back to stacking... For best stacking results, shoot RAW. Use PIPP (free program) to sort your frames in quality order and crop them all to close to the same frame - this is necessary for untracked images since the stacking software can only align images that are all relatively close framing wise. PIPP can handle some raw formats like DNG. For my sony ARW files, I had to first import the images into Lightroom, then export them as TIFF files (if you have to do this, be SURE to set output sharpening to "0"! - important!) Google tutorials.

Then, comes the stacking. I use Autostakkert!3 - another free program. There are others. Google tutorials.... ask questions here if you like. You will want to pick a number of the best quality frames... how many, depends on how many you have to work with, and the quality of the files. Both PIPP and AS!3 will assign quality values. If you only took 10 images, you will likely want to stack all of them. If you took 100.... then it will be a percentage - stacking the best of them.

After the stacking, comes the processing of your stacked file. There are many programs that can do this... only a few that are free. The very easiest one to use, and quite effective is IMPPG. The downside to this program is it only works in mono, so your moon shot will be black and white only. Still, for an easy start to things, IMPPG is the one I recomend. Google tutorials... very easy to use!

And finally, you will likely want to do some final touching up of your sharpened TIFF file in a standard photo editor like Lightroom or any other editor.

Doing things this way is a lot of work.... and it can be argued for little benefit when it comes to DSLR lunar photography un tracked. Me... I did it anyway and enjoyed both the process, and the improvements that it gave me.

Best of luck!! If you do dive in and have questions you can't google the answer to, just ask. There are many here who can help.

***Though.... perhaps there is another place on the forum to ask these questions... I don't know?

Clear skies!

Mike

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #19100528
A lovely image! Yes, nice crisp details and good exposure.

Something that needs to be pointed out about 4matic's effort is "seeing" (atmospheric steadiness) . Given similar equipment, 4matic will with good technique be often able to attain better results than most of the rest of us poor shmucks due to the much better seeing that UAE has in general. Seeing around "4/5" is typical there - my own seeing in my driveway has never reached a 4/5 in comparison.

Very best regards

Mike

I ignorantly actually thought the opposite. The air here is always kinda hazy pollution/dust etc. Lots of pollutants in the outside air. And the sky is not always blue, but since COVID I’m seeing much more of a bluer sky than before. Before COVID one had to be out in the desert far away to see a real blue sky. Granted though most nights it’s clear no cloud and the moon is very clear.

4matic wrote in post #19100844
I ignorantly actually thought the opposite. The air here is always kinda hazy pollution/dust etc. Lots of pollutants in the outside air. And the sky is not always blue, but since COVID I’m seeing much more of a bluer sky than before. Before COVID one had to be out in the desert far away to see a real blue sky. Granted though most nights it’s clear no cloud and the moon is very clear.

Ahh yes. Your error is totally understandable. The haze... The pollution... It affects transparency, how clear it looks. But seeing is about atmospheric turbulence. Here where I live transparency is great! To the naked eye and even viewing at magnification the moon looks pristine and spectacular..... But on a more close look it's is often boiling and shaking all over the place. For resolution good seeing is more important than good transparency.

WestCoastCannuck wrote in post #19100820
You are very welcome!! If your tracker can track the moon, then YES! But, it is only useful if you plan on stacking a lot of images. Shooting the moon uses short enough exposures for sharp stills, unlike astrophotography that NEEDS a tracker for the much longer exposures. Stacking even just a few frames can reduce noise which can result in a nicer, cleaner looking image with more apparent detail. The learning curve here is a little steep at first, but very satisfying to those that are hooked on the moon! A tracker will enable you to shoot many, many more frames for stacking giving you a file with much greater signal to noise ratio that can take more "pushing" in the processing, but not really necessary for DSLR work. I use to setup my tripod and wired release for my DSLR and I could usually manage about 100 or so shots (allowing a second or two between for the shutter-shock shake to still) . It was plenty enough for me. I have never gotten around to writing any tutorials, but with some googling you can dig out lots of info. I can point you in the right direction though for learning stacking.

First though... to answer your question on daytime shooting of the moon - dusk and sunrise are the best times for blue sky shooting, the closer, the better. Seeing tends to "settle" around this time.

Back to stacking... For best stacking results, shoot RAW. Use PIPP (free program) to sort your frames in quality order and crop them all to close to the same frame - this is necessary for untracked images since the stacking software can only align images that are all relatively close framing wise. PIPP can handle some raw formats like DNG. For my sony ARW files, I had to first import the images into Lightroom, then export them as TIFF files (if you have to do this, be SURE to set output sharpening to "0"! - important!) Google tutorials.

Then, comes the stacking. I use Autostakkert!3 - another free program. There are others. Google tutorials.... ask questions here if you like. You will want to pick a number of the best quality frames... how many, depends on how many you have to work with, and the quality of the files. Both PIPP and AS!3 will assign quality values. If you only took 10 images, you will likely want to stack all of them. If you took 100.... then it will be a percentage - stacking the best of them.

After the stacking, comes the processing of your stacked file. There are many programs that can do this... only a few that are free. The very easiest one to use, and quite effective is IMPPG. The downside to this program is it only works in mono, so your moon shot will be black and white only. Still, for an easy start to things, IMPPG is the one I recomend. Google tutorials... very easy to use!

And finally, you will likely want to do some final touching up of your sharpened TIFF file in a standard photo editor like Lightroom or any other editor.

Doing things this way is a lot of work.... and it can be argued for little benefit when it comes to DSLR lunar photography un tracked. Me... I did it anyway and enjoyed both the process, and the improvements that it gave me.

Best of luck!! If you do dive in and have questions you can't google the answer to, just ask. There are many here who can help.

***Though.... perhaps there is another place on the forum to ask these questions... I don't know?

Clear skies!

Mike

Thank you very much Mike for the comprehensive reply. You have given me lots to investigate and learn and fortunately not lots of things to buy. I will get my head down and digest all of this and come back to the forum with any questions.

Many thanks for writing up those fantastic notes. I will try and read back in this forum as I am sure there are loads of bits of useful info and be good to see all the amazing moon photos you guys have posted.