Captured some lunar images last night as conditions were good and the moon was directly overhead waxing just over halfway so an ideal phase for imaging
6” f6 Bintel newt
HEQ5 mount
Canon 600 D
ISO 800
Various exposures ( picked the best one in each batch )
Televue Powermates
BYEOS Planetary Mode
1500 frame AVI files
Stacked in Autostakkert 3
Processed in Registax 6
Images .....
1 / Prime focus
2/ 2 x Powermate
3/ 2.5 x Powermate
4/ 4 x Powermate
5/ 5 x Powermate
6/ Hadley Rille Apollo 15 Landing site ( you can see the Rille meandering along the floor of the valley , their lunar module Falcon is located near the end of the rille towards Mt Hadley )
7/ Taurus Littrow Apollo 17 Landing site ( their Lunar Module Challenger is located in the small square shaped valley in the centre of the image , there’s a very small crater to one side )
Superb Martin.
I just walked in and I must say it was most pleasing to look at your effort...and I feel guilty all my gear is downstairs and I am now going to make excuses to you, but mainly to me, why I can't bring it upstairs and have a go..mmm I know the Moon will be obscured by trees by the time I can stop other stuff....but I am certainly inspired...well done.
Alex
Thanks so much John and Alex
I find my 6” f6 Bintel newt seems to produce better results when Lunar imaging than my bigger 8” f5 Bintel newt
I’m very fortunate in having a full compliment of Televue Powermates which does make all the difference as well compared to cheaper Barlow’s. I’ve tried both and Powermates win hands down
Maybe some more zoomed in lunar terrain images tomorrow night if I’m home ?
Thanks again
Martin...do you know you can join the Barlow's?
I strung together 2 3x and a 2x...8x all up... on a 1200 mm FL refractor with a Meade LPI and photographed ants about 100 ft away...two ants filled the frame
Alex
Alex
Unfortunately we have this obstacle called atmosphere in the way when we image the universe and we are controlled or limited by its characteristics
For lunar and planetary imaging I can achieve close to 1:1 pixel resolution with my Canon 600D by running “live view”on 5 x zoom in BYEOS
As far as magnification and focal ratio of your scope goes the “general rule of thumb”for lunar and planetary imaging is about 5 x camera pixel size on average nights of seeing and 7 x camera pixel size
on nights of good seeing
So my Canon 600D has a pixel size of 4.3 using my 5 x Powermate on 5 x zoom “live view” BYEOS gives me a pixel resolution close to 1:1 and a focal ratio of F/21.5 which is giving me good results
I’ve tried stacking a 2 x Powermate and 4 x Powermate together on various occasions and seeing conditions which gives a focal ratio of F/25.8 and it’s pushing the optics a little too far and the results even after stacking and sharpening are horrible
So my little 6” scope works best at around F/22 max using my Canon 600D
Using a much bigger scope with my camera would require excellent seeing conditions to achieve better resolution and detail , but I’m happy with what my little 6” can do
Obviously dedicated planetary Astro CMOS cameras are in a class of their own compared to my humble DSLR but that’s another story for later
Cheers
Martin
