Hippalus Rimae from 9th May

[Dennis]

Hello,

Here is an image of the Hippalus Rimae from 9th May, 8:38pm AEST (GMT+10). I have included a screen print from Lunar Map Pro for comparison.

Captured via K3CCDTools.
Capture rate: 5fps
Capture time: 360 secs (=1800 frames)
Brightness: 50%
Gamma: 30%
Gain: 30%
Shutter: 1/50sec

Processed in Registax:
189 frames out of 1800
Wavelets 1=30

Celestron C9.25
TeleVue x2.5 Powermate
Philips 840K ToUcam

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman (Mike)]

Lovely shot Dennis.

I really think your image could benefit from MAP processing. I'd suggest re-running through registax and selecting a different alignmnet point (top right for example) where the image looks a bit soft, and do the same processing, and then combine the shots in photoshop after.

It's what all the top lunar imagers are doing these days, to ensure a sharp image across the whole field. The variability and "waviness" of the seeing can mean that even a sharp frame in your alignment box, is not sharp across the whole field.

So aligning/stacking on 3-6 areas in your image and processing them independantly, and then recombing after, is the best way to ensure you get the sharpest frames from each part of the image to make up the final result.

[Robert_T]

Hi Dennis, what a fascinating bit of lunar real estate. I'm always seeing stuff in your moon shots I didn't know existed. Do you know anything about the 3 or so parallel arcs - fault lines, valleys?

great stuff as always

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by iceman

Lovely shot Dennis.

I really think your image could benefit from MAP processing. I'd suggest re-running through registax and selecting a different alignmnet point (top right for example) where the image looks a bit soft, and do the same processing, and then combine the shots in photoshop after.

It's what all the top lunar imagers are doing these days, to ensure a sharp image across the whole field. The variability and "waviness" of the seeing can mean that even a sharp frame in your alignment box, is not sharp across the whole field.

So aligning/stacking on 3-6 areas in your image and processing them independantly, and then recombing after, is the best way to ensure you get the sharpest frames from each part of the image to make up the final result.

No, noo, nooo; no more processing please! It's really giving me the PIPS! I already have a chronically serious dose of Post Image-acquisition Processing Syndrome

Cheers

Dennis

PS – On a more serious note, thanks for the tip, I will try it and post the “before” and “after” images.

[Dennis]

Hello,

If you’re not suffering lunar overdose, here are the before and after images of the Hippalus region.

The first image was processed in Registax with an alignment box of 256x256 centred towards the middle of the image, leaving some of the peripheral areas a little soft as Mike described above.

The second image was as a result of processing in Registax, 7 times, using different features to align on each time, with a 64x64 alignment box, with each result being saved as a separate bmp.

I then cropped 6 of the bmp's around their alignment point and using Corel Photo Paint 12, stitched them onto the master base image.

If you look closely, there has been a definite improvement in sharpness and detail in the outlying areas, and the task wasn't as onerous as I had imagined!

Cheers

Dennis