100% full moon

[AlexN]

first shot for the night... going out to try and get a sharper one... afocal imaging sucks by the way.

Nikon D50 - 18mm f/11 ISO400 1/125 sec exp.
8" newt - 30mm 2" ep (80deg fov)
contrast/brightness played with in PS CS2

[Inmykombi]

I disagree with your comments on Afocal method.
If you have some patience and a desire to get the best out of your own affordable equipment, some good results can be obtained with the Afocal method.

I am continuing to improve my methods, but cannot afford the more expensive equipment at present. My advice is, just enjoy what you have and continue to image, and share it with others.
I like your Full Moon by the way.:)
Its cloudy here so I cant take any photos tinight.:(

All the best and keep it up.

Geoffro.

[AlexN]

yeah you are right, its not that afocal photography sucks, more that i suck at it (AT THE MOMENT!!!) :)

Thanks for your comment geoffro!! And I have been persisting since the post and have round 2!!

[AlexN]

and shot 3...

playing with photoshop different adjustment layers and masks trying to get it all right...

[Inmykombi]

Thanks for your reply.
I only have an Afocal budget unfortunately, but I find that I enjoy just imaging what I am able to Image with the equipment that I can afford.

Just take your time and enjoy it, and you will reap some reward for your efforts.
I get a great deal of reward from my humble images I take, and so do my
" non astronomical " friends whom I send photos to as well.

My goal at present is to capture the Moon at the earliest " New " Phase that I can.
A small "sliver " of the Moon would be a great photo in my opinion.
I keep missing it due to the weather or time constraints.
I would also like to image the Moon over a whole month, and put them together to show the phases over the whole Month.
Well one day maybe........
The Moon is a worthy target for imaging, and has held many a generation in Awe over the Centuries.

Keep up the good work.:)

Geoffro.

[AlexN]

I will admit that I've taken around 50 photos afocal so far.. and have been impressed with my results (in particular, a shot I took of Saturn with my mobile phone camera!!), but its hard to be really impressed with my shots when I compare them to some of the shots posted on this site.. I guess I have to keep in mind I've only been into astronomy for around a month.

Thanks for you're encouragement. Its always easier to keep motivated when people are willing to comment.

[legion48]

They are all good but I like shot 3 the best. A cracker.:)

[iceman]

#3 is really good, well done. I reckon the white point could be lowered a bit to make it a bit brighter, but the control of the contrast is very nice indeed.

Excellent afocal results.

[AlexN]

Thanks for your comments guys. I'll have a further play with the 3rd one and see if i can brighten it up a bit..

I will also post one of last nights early shots of Jupiter, although they were with a mobile phone camera, you can make it out nicely.

cheers.
Alex

[AlexN]

After reading in another lunar photography thread, in which, forum member 'dennis' covered a bit of information on histograms, I decided to go back for another photo shop pass on images 2 and 3 in this thread.

And came up with good results in my opinion.

(all constructive criticism is more than welcome.)

Thanks to dennis if he reads this, the histogram info proved priceless.

[Dennis]

Good re-work and processing, they look so much punchier now.:thumbsup:

Glad to have been of some help Alex. I’m still learning stuff about histograms too; hence it is quite topical for me, right now.

Cheers

Dennis