Well, I got home with a new vision to try something different with the external aperture mask. Where do I find something solid and black?? Bugger
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Anyway, I grabbed an old lever arch folder and cut a hole in it and worked out that I changed the F ratio from F4 to F6.5 (not much but a start).
Well, I have to admit, bugger me, the focusing was noticeably more forgiving as Chris points out
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So tomorrow I'll try some more changes and see how it goes.
So here is a quicky from tonight. 40D prime focus into the LXD55 8" with an external mask to drop from F4 to F6.5 - 7 images at 1/350sec ISO200 and stacked in Registax.
I still have a lot of improvement - esp in the colour and focus/detail at the fully lit part at the top. I'm really a blundering novice in the post processing department at the moment and its more of a try anything and hope!
Chris, may I ask for some details of your 3rd image? The field depth is really striking making it look like a globe rather than a pancake. So too the colour - this is something I really need to read up to extract that nice blueish highlight in the mare regions. This is such a great photo of yours that will give us beginners a good example of what to aim for
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aad_Dira, hope you do well too as I am only starting off. As Chris says, you really need min 300mm lense to get some detail. Use manual focus and make sure your camera is on a tripod with a cable release (or use the inbuilt timer function so you're not touching the camera when it takes the shot) Good luck!
Cheers,
Darrin...