An Affinity with the Moon

[Crater101 (Warren)]

Attached to this post is an image of the almost-full moon taken on 12/05/25 from Bathurst in NSW during about a three minute break in what has seemed like endless cloud cover of late.

Nothing unusual about it...except that I processed it solely with Affinity Photo 2.6.2. The newer version of Affinity has a Stacking feature and I was curious to see what it could do.

I mounted a Canon r6 to my iOptron CEM26 (unguided) and fired off 40 images. I used a 100-400mm lens at full (which meant f8) @200 ISO and 1/320 shutter speed. No darks or flats. Converted from .cr3 to .tif for processing. The image has been tweaked for contrast but otherwise is pretty much as it came out of the camera.

It's not as versatile as AutoStakkert or AstroSurface - the whole process is automatic - but I've had worse results over the years.

Thoughts?

[Leo.G (Leo)]

That looks good Warren but maybe slightly faster exposure time but that may just be my own preference for a slightly darker overall exposure.
What is this software you speak of?
Is it free?
I can't stack images taken with my D810 unless I reduce their size of each image considerably, otherwise nothing will touch them, not on my computer anyway and waiting for my son to try them on his higher spec computer is like watching paint dry.
No, paint does eventually dry......


Your cloud disappeared for 3 minutes?
When?


Actually, I drove to Mudgee on Monday and headed back at dusk (roo time) and got to see the full moon rising as I came up a big hill where you can see Pantoneys Crown from (Peterson or Patterson or Pearson ridge or something or other), I forget, but the moon looked spectacular.
SO spectacular that I nearly hit the rear of the cowboy IDIOT in the B double who decided near the end of the overtaking lane (me up it to get past 2 B doubles) he'd just jump in the right lane and pass the B double in front of him, no blinker or anything and have me stuck behind the other thing crawling with him barely able to accelerate past it himself.

[Crater101 (Warren)]

Cheers mate.
Affinity Photo isn't free but it's a damn sight cheaper than Photoshop, almost as full featured, and there's no ongoing subscription. https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

I get what you're saying about the moon - AND the 'roos! Come close to collecting one or two myself on the way to and from dark sky sites.

[Leo.G (Leo)]

I'll look into it, thanks mate!