First light FLT110 - Moon

[vash (Ashley)]

Well I finally managed to get an imaging session under my belt, last one was in February, not only that with my new scope too, seeing as how the moon washed out every DSO I looked at visually there was no point try to image one so I aimed at the cause.

I would have to say this is the best shot of the moon I have taken, focus was easy with the fine adjustment and combined with live view it only took a couple of seconds, I took 20 images at ISO 100 but can't remember what shutter speed.

The first is the full frame and the second is a crop.

*note, I processed this on my laptop and on this computer it looks very dark so tell me if it is on yours and I'll lighten it up.

3rd shot is the repro

[Quark (Trevor)]

Nice job Ashley,
The full Moon is always a compromise, trying not to overexpose the bright areas, but at the same time trying not to blacken the dark areas.

This is a subjective thing and everyone will have their own take on it. I think as long as you are happy with the result, that is really all that matters.

Cheers
Trevor

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Good shots, although they look a bit darkish to me.

Maybe a better way to preserve highlights/darker areas on the moon is to take 2 shots - one exposing for the highlights and detail, and the other for the moon. Shoot them in RAW, so you can make adjustments as needed. Then bring them into Photoshop etc and do some creative masking/combining of the Two images.

Dave

[Dennis]

Excellent shots Ashley! On my monitor, the enlargement looks slightly “too smooth” or “plastic” as if too much Gaussian blur or noise reduction may have been applied! If that is the case, then I think you might have lost some fine detail, as it seems there is plenty there.

Cheers

Dennis

[TrevorW]

Excellent job Ash

the darks bits were thought to be seas

maybe lighten a little bit

but a good one never the less

[batema (Mark)]

Congratulations on the new scope and great shot. I have one and absolutely love it. How good is that focuser. Very smooth. It will be interesting to see how the ruducer goes as I don't have one of those. Well done.

Mark

[allan gould]

The moon shots show good detail but a little CA on the top LH rim and bottom RH edge as well as some of the brighter craters. But this is typical from a WO scope.

[vash (Ashley)]

Originally Posted by batema

Congratulations on the new scope and great shot. I have one and absolutely love it. How good is that focuser. Very smooth. It will be interesting to see how the ruducer goes as I don't have one of those. Well done.

Mark

I'm not sure how it will go either but I used the MPCC for this shot as its the only way to attach the camera at the moment. I'll set up my editing computer again and process it properly cause the lappy just can't quite cut it for image enhancing, looks good on it but not anything else.

From what I have seen this scope is better than my old dob, I was looking at craters with a 9mm eyepiece and a 5X Barlow and it was still clear just a little wavey. Saturn was also very clear with a 15mm and 5X Barlow.

Can't wait for a DSO shot.

[vash (Ashley)]

I set up my processing computer ( same laptop but with a good monitor attached) and had a bit of a play around.

Used registax this time as apposed to just eyeballing it in photoshop.
still not the best image of the moon but a damn sight better than the other one I did.