Plato Sunrise

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Hello all,
Crater Plato at sunrise is THE place on the moon to see the stark shadows of crater walls stretched out on the crater floor.

ZWO 178mm camera, Celestron Edge HD 14". Approx. 2,000 frames stacked in Autostakkert!3 and sharpened in Registax.

Richard

[Mickoid (Michael)]

Wow! This looks fantastic Richard. In this case, size really does matter and some great processing as well. Feels like I'm hovering over and just about to land on the surface when I look at this.

[Dave882 (David)]

Yep I love those shadowy peaks reaching across the floor. Nicely captured.
I forgot if you mention previously, but are you using an IR-pass filter with the mono setup? I might suggest increasing your capture time to allow a few more frames I think it might make your processing easier and reduce noise a little. Great work tho nice to see the c14 in action!!

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

Fabulous image, Richard. I love chasing shadows on the Moon and tracking their movement and changing shapes over several hours.

[MortonH]

Great image.

[Crater101 (Warren)]

That's VERY nice indeed, some great detail there. Well done!

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Another amazing image Richard!
Am I the only person here who ever gets bad images?
I'm beginning to feel like it, lol.
Last time it was a seeing thing, every image frame the moon either shrunk or grew.


Have you ever combined the different individual images of the different regions to produce what I should imagine would be an amazing mosaic?


MS I.C.E. (image composite editor) is free if you can still find it and can produce good results (and bad but mostly good). If no longer listed wayback machine is your friend.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Great resolution on Plato and surrounds though the contrast seems a bit off, the shadows are all a bit greyish to my eyes, though I don't know if I trust them too much.

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Thanks for the kind and constructive comments all.

Originally Posted by Leo.G

Another amazing image Richard!
Am I the only person here who ever gets bad images?
I'm beginning to feel like it, lol.
Last time it was a seeing thing, every image frame the moon either shrunk or grew.


Have you ever combined the different individual images of the different regions to produce what I should imagine would be an amazing mosaic?


MS I.C.E. (image composite editor) is free if you can still find it and can produce good results (and bad but mostly good). If no longer listed wayback machine is your friend.

Hi Leo,

Thanks for the info. I'll chase it up. As far as bad images go, when I look at some of my efforts from 10 years back I cringe! But improved gear and technique helps over the time. No doubt I'll be cringing at the present efforts in 10 years when AI - driven - gigabyte chip - light amplifying - gear is cheap and all run by a pocket Quantum Computer.

Originally Posted by Dave882

Yep I love those shadowy peaks reaching across the floor. Nicely captured.
I forgot if you mention previously, but are you using an IR-pass filter with the mono setup? I might suggest increasing your capture time to allow a few more frames I think it might make your processing easier and reduce noise a little. Great work tho nice to see the c14 in action!!

Hi Dave,
I typically use IR pass but also a Red Filter and sometimes none at all - I fiddle with the filters until I get the best image on the video for that particular evening or even single run.

This pic used an IR Pass but the noise is still more than I would like despite a few goes at reduction of same. And yes, I will extend the capture time. Currently depending on the ROI size I use, 2,000 frames can generate up to 5GB.

Richard

[bkm2304 (Richard Brown)]

Originally Posted by Saturnine

Great resolution on Plato and surrounds though the contrast seems a bit off, the shadows are all a bit greyish to my eyes, though I don't know if I trust them too much.

Thanks, Jeff. Contrast/lighting adjustment is something I always struggle with. In the end it's a personal choice but I try and get the "Apollo" look although you can only work with what you have on the screen. My wife is certain I have trouble distinguishing grays and pale greens, and while I'm not sure of the genetics, both my sons are colourblind - one with a rare form - so perhaps she's right!

Richard