Moon 15 August 2013

[lazjen (Chris)]

Last night's moon.



This was a single shot 1/200s @ ISO 100, using the Astro Physics CCDT67 FR on the scope for the first time. I'm quite satisfied with the result since this was certainly a "lucky" shot. I did some video as well and the atmosphere was roiling so much I couldn't get anything really useful from it.

[asimov (John)]

Take 5 like this & stack them.

Nice result.

[Solar (Ralph Smith)]

That shot looks pretty good to me Chris. One frame, ON YA Mate.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Originally Posted by asimov

Take 5 like this & stack them.

Nice result.

Bit of a facepalm moment for me when I read your post. I don't know why I didn't think of this at the time. Hmmm, I do have a couple of others, but slightly different exposure times...

Originally Posted by Solar

That shot looks pretty good to me Chris. One frame, ON YA Mate.

Thanks. It's also one of the rare shots I've got that when I look at it "100%" it still looks quite good.

[asimov (John)]

Different exposures should still stack ok, Chris

[lazjen (Chris)]

I was just trying with Autostakkert, but it seemed to hang while processing. At least it did better than Registax though, which completely crashed.

I was using the TIFFs directly converted from the RAW images. Maybe they're too large for the program to handle.

[asimov (John)]

I stacked 8 images tonight in AS!2 from the 7D. Yes it will take awhile for the program to crunch threw them. I should point out it'll hang & stay hung forever if you are trying to do 2 images. Apparently the minimum is 3 images. Mine were just straight JPEG's.

Are you using version 2.1.0.5?

[lazjen (Chris)]

I've got 4 images. Version is 2.2.0.16 Alpha (can't remember now why I went to this version). It's getting 96% done and basically hanging on the MAP Analysis phase.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Just went back to 2.1.0.5 and I'm making more progress. First attempt succeeded but the alignment was woeful. I'm on my second attempt now, but I might have gone a touch insane on the number of alignment points...

[asimov (John)]

Lol. Some things will boost the insanity levels, & this can do it if you let it

I know it sounds silly, but try just one (200 in size) in the middle on a small crater..

Edit: And hopefully they were taken with a tracking mount. The moon needs to be in pretty much identical positioning in each frame.

[Solar (Ralph Smith)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

I've got 4 images. Version is 2.2.0.16 Alpha (can't remember now why I went to this version). It's getting 96% done and basically hanging on the MAP Analysis phase.

When it does that Chris JUST let it hang and get a coffee it will do it.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Originally Posted by asimov

Lol. Some things will boost the insanity levels, & this can do it if you let it

I know it sounds silly, but try just one (200 in size) in the middle on a small crater..

Edit: And hopefully they were taken with a tracking mount. The moon needs to be in pretty much identical positioning in each frame.

Ah, yes a tracking mount, but I didn't align it properly - my main aim for the night was to sort out different configuration setups (FF vs FRs vs 2x Barlow), so the moon was a juicy target for it all. There's a bit of drift between them. I guess I could crop the TIFFs to fix that and give it a go.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Solar

When it does that Chris JUST let it hang and get a coffee it will do it.

Let's just say that it would have been a very long coffee. So much so that I would have gone full cycle to the *next* coffee with seemingly no progress. (Ok maybe I haven't let it go that long). I'm sure I gave it greater than an hour, probably more with no luck.

[asimov (John)]

Yeah if it doesn't do it within 1 - 1.5 mins it's never going to do it & there's a problem somewhere. I'd crop them central, convert to JPEG & just try 3.