Hi all,
I had a go at the moon last night. Prime focus using 1600 ISO and 1/8000 shutter as this seemed to give the clearest images (thanks to raymo for this tip). I've then used Paintshop Pro to try and get more detail.
Looking for any comments, criticism, suggestions - I really want to get better so I really am happy for anything to be said.
Now for my question.
I'm shooting with a modded Canon 60D. I'm using 640 x 480 movie crop mode (1:1 Pixel Resolution) @ 60fps to try and get Saturn etc. This all falls apart with the moon as movie crop mode won't fit much more than about 20% (a guess) of the moon in the frame.
I had a go shooting moon video with other resolutions and the output from Autostakkert or Registax looks terrible and quite low resolution.
Is there any other tricks I can try to get video of the moon and stack it or do I need to stick to pictures.
Hi Mick
Nice shot
I don't do video with the moon, when using a DSLR, but I stack numerous stills instead.
I use a Nikon which outputs MOV movies, and I haven't got a program to convert as yet.
For this image:- http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=150513
I used about 80% of 40 stills, stacked in Registax with a bit of wavelets and contrast and brightness adjustment in photoshop. That was it.
I used ISO200 at 1/640s.
Keep at it
Cheers
Hi Mick
Nice shot
I don't do video with the moon, when using a DSLR, but I stack numerous stills instead.
I use a Nikon which outputs MOV movies, and I haven't got a program to convert as yet.
For this image:- http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=150513
I used about 80% of 40 stills, stacked in Registax with a bit of wavelets and contrast and brightness adjustment in photoshop. That was it.
I used ISO200 at 1/640s.
Keep at it
Cheers
Bob
Thanks Bob, I'd never thought of stacking stills, Which sounds a bit stupid I suppose when all Registax or Stakkert do is use still from a video
The detail in your shot is great. Let's hope I can get something similar one day.
I have “dragged and dropped” between 10 and 20 TIFs (converted from Canon CR2s) into the Autostakkert!2 “Frame View” Window but had to crop them beforehand, to avoid them being chopped off by AS!2.
I think that 2048x2048 frames ran okay in AS!2 but from memory, 2560x2560 frames had the top and bottom chopped off.
I have “dragged and dropped” between 10 and 20 TIFs (converted from Canon CR2s) into the Autostakkert!2 “Frame View” Window but had to crop them beforehand, to avoid them being chopped off by AS!2.
I think that 2048x2048 frames ran okay in AS!2 but from memory, 2560x2560 frames had the top and bottom chopped off.
Hi Mick
Nice shot
I don't do video with the moon, when using a DSLR, but I stack numerous stills instead.
I use a Nikon which outputs MOV movies, and I haven't got a program to convert as yet.
For this image:- http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=150513
I used about 80% of 40 stills, stacked in Registax with a bit of wavelets and contrast and brightness adjustment in photoshop. That was it.
I used ISO200 at 1/640s.
Keep at it
Cheers
Bob
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis
I have “dragged and dropped” between 10 and 20 TIFs (converted from Canon CR2s) into the Autostakkert!2 “Frame View” Window but had to crop them beforehand, to avoid them being chopped off by AS!2.
I think that 2048x2048 frames ran okay in AS!2 but from memory, 2560x2560 frames had the top and bottom chopped off.
Cheers
Dennis
Hey Dennis an Bob,
A couple of questions after giving it a go with both Autostakkert and Registax.
At full res 5184 x 3456 both programs quickly die no matter what file format I convert the Canon CR2 to.
At 1960 x 1814 (cropping plus some downsampling)
TIFF
Registax: can't read them properly (all frames look like the moon on acid)
Autostakkert: Crashes importing files with "invalid floating point".
BMP
Autostakkert: Freezes on "analyse"
Registax: gives me a great looking small piece of the moon. One was a crater on the edge that looked absolutely stunning, almost 3D, but the other 97% of the moon - where my POI and/or align points were - just wasn't there. The same no matter what settings I use. It also sometimes freezes. (this is where I likely need to learn a lot more as well)
Downsampling another 50% with either BMP or TIFF gets me an image in Both programs, but I have had to downsample so much I have lost detail.
I assume formats and size (plus my knowledge) are getting in the way. I'm not asking for a tutorial on the programs, as that's my job to go and learn. Just wondering how you guys get around these issues with file types and size/resolution?
Do you shoot from the image at lower resolution?
Do you use some specific way of converting/downsampling that doesn't result in the image quality losses I was seeing?
For a target the size of the Moon, the resolution you get from a single fast still frame is always going to be vastly better than the best HD video can do, even in less-than-ideal conditions. Hugely better. Video stacking is the only way to go for very small fuzzy targets like planets, but for the Moon you're far better off taking a single shot than wasting time & effort using video.
This was a single RAW photo taken with a cheap Nikon through the same exact OTA as yours. Mild editing done in Lightroom. It's considerably shrunken here to fit the 200kb IIS restriction but the original resolution is wonderful - razor sharp right down to the pixel level and it's a 24MP camera. ISO 400, 1/1250.
For a good full Moon shot just take a dozen or so of these and pick the best one.
(Different story doing close-ups on craters, of course. Once again it's all about Barlow lenses and stacking videos.)
For a target the size of the Moon, the resolution you get from a single fast still frame is always going to be vastly better than the best HD video can do, even in less-than-ideal conditions. Hugely better. Video stacking is the only way to go for very small fuzzy targets like planets, but for the Moon you're far better off taking a single shot than wasting time & effort using video.
This was a single RAW photo taken with a cheap Nikon through the same exact OTA as yours. Mild editing done in Lightroom. It's considerably shrunken here to fit the 200kb IIS restriction but the original resolution is wonderful - razor sharp right down to the pixel level and it's a 24MP camera. ISO 400, 1/1250.
For a good full Moon shot just take a dozen or so of these and pick the best one.
(Different story doing close-ups on craters, of course. Once again it's all about Barlow lenses and stacking videos.)
Hi Chris,
That's a great pic. I understand what you're saying but I am also trying to learn how to stack stills as well.
It uses a program called PIPP to centre and convert the images. When I used this the resulting TIFF files - even up to full 18MP resolution - worked fine in Autostakkert2.
I processed a couple of pictures that I don't really think look any better, and a bit rougher around the edges on one, but just happy that I got the process to work.
BTW - what do you find is best to get the pics down to 200kb for posting?
Thanks
Mick
Last edited by mikeyjames; 18-11-2016 at 04:03 PM.
I use Windows Paint... just open, click "resize" in the tool bar and select either percentage or pixels. I like percentage because its easier to calculate and get close in one go. Just make sure you select "Save as" and rename it or it will overwrite your original JPEG (unless you don't care ).
Mick, download Irfanview. It's small, has a lot of resize options, reads CR2 and other RAW formats. Very limited processing, but it does an excellent job on the things it does do. I have set it as the default viewer for CR2 and other formats so I can just click a pic for a quick look. Takes just seconds to open., and I use it a lot for a quick crop, resize, convert, or to greyscale something. And it takes plugins. http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm
I use Windows Paint... just open, click "resize" in the tool bar and select either percentage or pixels. I like percentage because its easier to calculate and get close in one go. Just make sure you select "Save as" and rename it or it will overwrite your original JPEG (unless you don't care ).
Mick, download Irfanview. It's small, has a lot of resize options, reads CR2 and other RAW formats. Very limited processing, but it does an excellent job on the things it does do. I have set it as the default viewer for CR2 and other formats so I can just click a pic for a quick look. Takes just seconds to open., and I use it a lot for a quick crop, resize, convert, or to greyscale something. And it takes plugins. http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm
Trev
Thanks Trevor. Sometimes I think I get so caught up with the difficulty I forget the simple stuff. Irfanview is a great little program that I had forgotten about - I used to use it years ago to batch convert camera images to a smaller size for a website.
).
