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...

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!!!

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!

Thank Goodness for IIS and Stuart and his Cresent Moon Mosaic: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ead.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

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

Thanks Stuart!!!
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] (Paul)]

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

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 If you guys are not careful you might just start a world wide trend.

[RapidEye]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

That Autostitch does a damn fine job ususally.

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

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

And so did you RE. Great Shot! That's a lot of work and well worth the effort. How does it feel

Thanks! Sorta Great, Sorta Sick
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!!!

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

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 If you guys are not careful you might just start a world wide trend.

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

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

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

[iceman (Mike)]

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]

Originally Posted by iceman

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

I did, but not until AFTER I did those shots

Your touchups are a great improvement - THANKS!!!

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

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!!!

[iceman (Mike)]

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]

Originally Posted by iceman

6. Mode->Greyscale
7. Contrast adjustment, about +20.

Cool!

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

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

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....

Thanks a TON Ice

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