Full Moon Mosaic - Aug 19, 2005 - My Fist Astro-Photo

[RapidEye]

OK, right after I got my T-Ring adapter for my digital rebel, I drug my 10" F/5 GS Dob out to grab some shots of the full moon. I wound up having to put a barlow in front of the camera to reach in-focus and I didn't have a hartman mask or anything, so I just focused by hand/eyeball. The zoom factor was higher than I expected so I wound up having to shoot around the moon knowind I'd have to stitch together a composite. I also don't have a remote shutter release, so I just set the camera up for a 10 sec shutter delay... :scared2:

What started out as an easy project got waaaaaay out of hand. 16 - 6 Megapixel pictures loaded at the same time in order to overlay them just brought my system to a grind! Then, to my horror, I realized that in between the time it took me to realign the shot and let the timer run, physics had run its course, and the moon had rotated just a bit!!! :doh:

I spent the better part of a slow day at work trying to get everything rotated, aligned, and color balanced and still wasn't happy with the results.

I researched and downloaded a dozen aps to help me de-rotate, align, and build the composite - still not happy! :scared:

Thank Goodness for IIS :love: and Stuart and his Cresent Moon Mosaic: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=4205

He used Autostitch to assemble his shot - an app I hadn't heard of.

I downloaded it, pointed it at the 16 BIG jpg files, came back an hour later, and the default settings had managed to assemble the end result: a completely satisfactory image --- 6000x6000 pixels wide :scared2:

A little bit of work with GIMP shrunk it down, and here is the end result: My First Astro-Photo!!!

:sunny: Thanks Stuart!!!
:bowdown: Thanks IIS!!!

OK - Melodrama over...
Particulars are:
10" F/5 GSO Dob
Canon Digital Rebel (D300)
Celestron Ultima Shorty Barlow
1/500 sec
Auto-White Balance (Mistake)
Highest Quality/Size JPEG File 6MP (Mistake)
Shot using 10 second delay timer.
16 Frame Mosaic
Assembled with Autostitch

Enjoy!!!

[[1ponders]]

That Autostitch does a damn fine job ususally. And so did you RE. Great Shot!:cool2: That's a lot of work and well worth the effort. How does it feel :D

I've long held the belief that there is an astrophotographer hiding under most Dobbers waiting to spring out. Well it seems that way around here nayway:lol: If you guys are not careful you might just start a world wide trend.

[RapidEye]

No Doubt!!! I'd write the guy a check for a commercial version tonight, if he had one!


Thanks! Sorta Great, Sorta Sick :cool:
Great in that it worked out so well...
Sick in that I spent probably 12 hrs over 2 weeks trying to get the picture right, but once I installed Autostitch - it took under an hour!!! :doh:



LOL!!!
I used to teach photo-lab work in HighSchool and College - ran the journalism lab for 2 semesters at my college: I've been a photohound long before I bought my dob :rofl:

Besides, F/5 just lends itself to photo work so well :D

But you are still correct. Between the awesome low cost, low F ratio optics now available and the high quality, high sensitivity digital cameras, and whoop@$$ software, it won't be long before we'll be able to do DSO work with a dob too :cool:

[iceman]

Very nice RE, great first attempt of the full moon!

I had a go at processing it (all of 1 minute) in photoshop, attached are the results. There's a lot of detail there.

btw, I assume you've read my article, Astrophotography with a Dob??

[RapidEye]

I did, but not until AFTER I did those shots :doh:

Your touchups are a great improvement - THANKS!!!

Now tell me what you did, so I can do it on the FULLSIZED 18MB file :o

I don't have PhotoShop, but instead use GIMP. I can do anything you can (supposedly) just that the menus and commands are different.

Thanks again Ice - this place is great!!!:thumbsup:

[iceman]

You're welcome!

Steps I did (in photoshop)
1. Duplicate layer
2. Filter->other->high pass
3. Set to "Hard Light" and 30% opacity
4. Flatten image
5. Filter->Sharpen->Unsharp Mask (100%)
6. Mode->Greyscale
7. Contrast adjustment, about +20.

That's it!

[RapidEye]

Cool! :D

OK, I took a SWAG on those two changes - did them myself on a whim, but didn't do it for the posted image.
The others were NOT on my radar - BIG THANKS!!!
You've got me pointed in the right direction now!

Its late here and I was so excited by how good that last image came out, that I've spent all night ripping off some more shots, including some of Copurnicus :whistle:

Time for bed, but with a little luck, I'll get a chance to do some processing tomorrow... :zzz:

First up, reprocess the BIG image following Ice's suggestions.
Second up, make a pass at the stuff I shot tonight and see if it is worthy....:bowdown:

Thanks a TON Ice

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