First attempts

[Darwins_monkey]

Ok, so I'm not going to win any prizes for these shots. The moon was still relatively low in the sky, with clouds passing etc (read: excuses, excuses, there may have been wine before hand).

The first shot (smaller image) is me sticking my Nikon D40 (18-55 lens all the way up to 55) up against the 25mm eye piece (afocal?). The second is with the 2x barlow lens + camera attachment.

As you can see...I have a LONG way to go, but MAN it was fun :D

Next step learn about this fancy "stacking" software business and how to use this camera.

Cheers,
Brad

[cometcatcher]

Nice first Moon shots Brad!

The learning curve is a steep but fulfilling one.

[Rex]

Nice going Brad, watch out the slope is slippery, once you start on it you can't stop LOL. great first attempts mate, and welcome to the forum.

[LightningNZ]

Hi Brad,

Nice first Moon shots. I reckon the Moon is actually a pretty tricky target - my own images attest to that.

I hope you don't mind but I've had a play with your high-res image here and I reckon there's plenty more detail in there. ;)

I can only echo Kevin and Rex when they say it's an addictive hobby this, but a really fun one. Best of luck with everything.

Cheers,
Cam

[Darwins_monkey]

That's the same photo? What magic is this? :) Care to elaborate a little on what you did?

Cheers,
Brad

[OzStarGazer]

Some sharpening, "curves" and playing around with contrast usually do the trick. You will need a program like Photoshop for that. Usually some editing is necessary. Many people also record a video and then stack the frames, although for the moon you can usually also edit single shots...
Good start! :thumbsup:
By the way, usually the full moon is not a good target. You'll get more details when the moon is not full and craters are visible along the terminator. :)
And yes, you will become addicted to astrophotography!

[Darwins_monkey]

Sweet! Thanks a lot for the tips and I think I'm already addicted, but I'm ok with that :D

[LightningNZ]

Hi Brad, I should have said straight-out what I did to your photo. Yes it was just a bit of sharpening and curve adjustment in photoshop. Photoshop has a very powerful concept called "layering" which lets you apply various mathematical operations to copies of images, as if were stacking them on top of each other and then peering down through them all. I used that in your image here to build the contrast after I had sharpened the image a bit.

[OzStarGazer]

Ah, I am addicted too! Last night I was very sick and could not sleep. I walked past the balcony and when I saw the moon I had to grab my scope and my NexImage in the middle of the night. I had to! It was worth it. The craters were beautiful! And then slowly Jupiter came up too. :)
Today though I am very tired!
How is your addiction going?

[jenchris]

Well done on your first moonshot. Good start.

It's like the first drag on a cigarette!

My name is Jenny it's been nearly a year since my last photosession.
There's addiction for you - AA - astronomer's anonymous,
I just spent a week rebuilding the roof of my tin shed so it rolls off rather than sliding sideways.
Tonight I shall be among the stars once more - I just put my mount on the pier....
I think we all start on the moon and I was no different - using my Aldi Traveller camera afocally - I actually made a piece of wood into a connector so I could get the image stable - Held on with elastic bands... oh yes it certainly is addictive - hence demounting the OTA and buying an NEQ6pro.... I SHALL get good snaps!

Here's my moon from the aldi - only the fourth shot from the camera!

[LightningNZ]

Far out Jen, that's awesome! Talk about sharp.

I thought I hadn't seen any pics from you for a while. The weather here has been pretty rubbish for a bit, hopefully I'll get some more pics out as soon as it clears properly.

Clear skies,
Cam

EDIT: Sorry Peter, just read your EOI post. I hope you aren't out of astronomy altogether. :(

[Darwins_monkey]

Ha! I'm not that bad yet...yet. I haven't had a chance to get out the past few night so I've resigned myself to studying my planisphere and searching the forum for inspirational photos, hoping, wishing, I can one day I can compete with their awesomeness!


As a "trying-to-be" ex-smoker, that's a very appropriate analogy. Pretty soon I'll be a moon day man:)

And that photos is awesome! Did you do anything with it or is that all natural?



All good, Cam. I've been playing around with levels and contrast in Photoshop, and getting half decent results, but I'll try as you suggest to see what I can come up with. Thanks for tips!

Cheers,
Brad

[jenchris]

Unretouched but I did mess with one I took a few minutes later
This is the 9th pic I took with the camera, I stretched this a little to see if I could get some more from it

[OzStarGazer]

Then you don't need Astronomers Anonymous yet... :)

If it wasn't for clouds I would probably be less addicted, but you have to be quick when there are no clouds... Last night for example there was no moon...
Although even when there are no clouds there are often turbulences, really terrible turbulences at high magnifications.