Increase lunar definition

[Lumen Miner]

Hi all!!

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice with a couple of issues.

First of all, is there any way to refine my images to capture more detail of the surface? I'm using a three year old Sony cybershot
Should I be stacking to get the desired result, or is my 75mm refractor just not up to capturing the detail?

If I should be stacking to get the detail, could anyone in REALLY simple terms tell me how to align properly in registax? I can't figure out for the life of me, how to do the align feature. I select an area on the first image but when I go "align" it misses and stacks off center just giving me a blur...
what am I doing wrong, I have read several walk-throughs, yet get miffed when they say "select the align point, then limit"... lost, lost,lost lil man... :(

Any help would be appreciated, as I am just "stumbling in the dark" so to speak. :)

[Omaroo]

G'Day Mitchell

Welcome to lunar photography! :hi:

Firstly, this is a pretty good early result for you. I think that your scope is capturing detail OK, but focus might need a tweak. This is tricky sometimes, and requires that you take a bunch of shots, tweaking focus and zooming in to 10x or so on the LCD after each test shot to see it the last focus tweak resulted in a sharper image than the previous exposure. My guess is that being a Cybershot you focus in live view anyhow - and not through a viewfinder. Can you focus at 10x or zoom?

Once you have focus as good as it's going to get, try a bunch of shots at different speeds, starting from (depending on the phase of the moon) a 500th sec and progress down to 1/125th or so. Take a dozen or so at each speed stop. After you download them, choose the one with greatest all-round tone. I'm not sure that you have ISO control on that camera, but aim for the lowest setting (ISO200 rather than ISO 1600 for instance) if you do.

I don't use DSS, Registax or an other stacking program, but rather Photoshop to do it all - so I won't comment on the others. There are plenty of people who really know what they're doing with them, and will gladly offer you a hand.

Remember to take a series of dark frames too before you venture back inside. Take darks by putting your lens cap back on (or scope cap) and take a series of exposures (at least two or three) that match the exposures you took the light frames at. Feed these to DSS or Registax and they'll remove a lot of thermal noise from your images.

I've just tweaked your image very quickly to show that it does contain detail, but there's a lot of noise too, which stacking will remove much of. Your black point was set wrongly, so I moved it back down to the base of the histogram. Do you have Photoshop or any other editing software? If you don't have Photoshop (the BEST by far), you might look into downloading GIMP for free. For your purposes it's very similar and extremely powerful.

Have fun!

[Lumen Miner]

Omaroo,

That image just, like, totally blew my mind. That is AMAZING!!
I can not explain the (well you know), the excitment of seeing that image, come out of mine...
I was almost at the point, as one does, of thinking I had found the extent of my equipment.
I am very quickly learning that the most important part of my equipment is myself. The variables in my consistency seem almost overwhelming.


~ Nailed it on the focus, the cyber shots screen, leaves alot to be desired. I can make out focus through it slightly, yet it is more a shoot and miss, sort of thing.

~ I can focus at 10X, yet the cybershot has no acc lense mount option. So things are difficult with my homebrew method of coupling.

~ The cybershot has only ISO setting 100,200,400. So i'm in the right ball park anyway. There is no setting for exposure length :(

~ Downloading GIMP now.

Thanks heaps for editing that image, I'm going to go take some more of tonights moon. Then I'll sit down and get to know GIMP, I have never used it before, have read several reviews though.

[jjjnettie]

Super image!
Love the way it's presented too.
You've done very well!

[DavidU]

Mitchell, it's great to see you excited by the info from Chris.
You did great with your image. Lot's to learn from the crew here.

[Lumen Miner]

jjjnettie, DavidU

I realise I am in the presense, of some very talented astronomers/photographers. Your responces make me feel very humble indeed, thankyou.

I feel though, that I need to spend much more time learning this craft. Since starting this thread I now totally realise I need to improve my own skills to capture the most out of the image, whereas before I was thinking my scope was lacking. It is good to come to that conclusion, it means I have plenty to work on. Perhaps I should try a tripod, instead of shooting free hand for a start. ;)

This image was just a random taken out of a few, I had in a handy folder for upload as an example. Given that I feel I can produce alot better work than this. It gives me much to look forward to. Thanks people!! :) :)

[Lester]

Hi Mitchell, nice image with the Cyber shot. I started with one of those cameras. There are eyepieces that will screw into the end of the lense to mount the camera directly into the telescope focuser for afocal projection.

They are called Digi-ring camera adaptors, sold by Astro-Optical Supplies.

All the best.

[Omaroo]

A pleasure Mitchell :thumbsup:

Yes, get out there tonight. In southern Sydney, where I am, it's absolutely brilliant out there right now. The moon is near zenith or just beyond - so you'll have the advantage of a more favourable atmosphere, and the air is very dry. Great seeing, slight breeze - just fantastic conditions. It you're going to take some shots do them now! Good luck! :)

[Lumen Miner]

Omaroo- "Yes, get out there tonight." You don't need to tell me twice, cya!! :)


Lester- Well, this has been an un-expected honour, so many awesome astrophotographers. I feel like i'm in a room full on celebrities!! Thank you. I'm sure you are right about the cyber shots. My looking at mine, I can not see any such attachment mech anywhere on the lense at all. To the extent that the shutter mech front panel has fallen off before and still no attach mech... could it be mine is pre the attach mech introduction. The camera could possible be as old as 4 years.

[jjjnettie]

I started off with a Canon s3is, shooting afocal, hand held. I can fully appreciate how much effort you've put into your images.
Do you have a movie function on your camera? If you do I reckon you should have a go at imaging Jupiter.
Capture some short .avi's, then process them through Registax. You will be amazed at what you can capture once you've got a little practice.:)

[Lumen Miner]

Yes there is a movie function.
To capture Jupiter at a decent image magnification (showing surface detail etc), I need some sort of lense mount for the camera. Unfortunatley I do not believe the camera, can have one attached to the lense, all moving parts, no stationary ones to mount on to. My make-shift solution is not up to the magnification, I need to adjust the fitting to much. Perhaps I can manufacture a mount, that utilises the screw tripod mount of the camera, instead of the lense.

I think I have seen similar for sale... Attaches to lense mount of tele, then drops down to form the in/out slide on screw, then another axis slide for height adjust. That is the only option I can see for a mount for this camera.... although, I think I would like to upgrade my camera to something more, usable with more settings...


Thanks heaps for your suggestions!!! i'm hooked on this thread now.

[jjjnettie]

I only ever butted the lens of the camera up to the eyepiece. No fancy gadgets to hold it in place.
I used a 12.5mm eyepiece and a 2x barlow, then zoomed right in with the camera, focus with the scope then shoot. Only 10 seconds at a time, but at 30 frames a second, thats 300 frames to stack.
I must admit that it took a bit of practice to perfect the method, but it was worth it.
The Saturn pic is only 143 frames stacked.
The Jupiters range from just 81 frames up to around 300 stacked.

[Lumen Miner]

Yes, I believe i am just about following your method on the capturing, just i'm a tad slow still, my mount is sloppy, still coming to terms with the clutch on it.

I still can figure out how to align properly in registax. I select an area, then click align, but the end image comes out fuzzy. should I be getting rid of more shots?

Those images are AWESOME!!! That looks like lots of hours of work there.

[White Rabbit]

Jinette is the resident 10sec master. I cant do half the things with twice the gear that she does. Proof that it's the painter not the brushes.

[Lumen Miner]

I'll have to note that down somewhere, for future reference. ;)


The amount of free flowing knowledge here, is really astounding.
I have really enjoyed the responces as a beginner. Not a negative thing has been said to me, about my gear/shots/ or otherwise. Only constructive critisism and praise. A really a great place to be as a noob. :)

[jjjnettie]

Mitchel,
Most of us have been exactly where you are at the moment.
Not all of us can start off with top shelf gear.
I reckon you learn more working your way through the ranks anyway.

[Lumen Miner]

Well, I'm only 26 and support myself financially, have done for 7 years. I am glad to be able to purchase my first scope. Even though it is meager, it has opened up views previously inconcievable to my eyes/brain. All this and I still haven't really stepped into the world of astrophotography. This pursuit seems to have endless possibilities, given the appropriate funding.

I can see myself sticking with this (as I normally get bored easily). I have been out observing every night without fail. Rain/hail/shine, I still go outside every 1/2hr to check if the skies in Sydney have cleared to grab a few snaps....

I am really looking forward to saving up for some better gear, as I feel the rewards will be worth it. :)