Lunar Images with ZWO 174mm camera and 12.5"

[John K]

Hi everyone,

Well the ASI 174mm got real work out last night.

Despite the mediocre conditions, the results to me appear quite pleasing. The wide field of this camera makes it great for Lunar imaging, and during the capture sessions on my 17" laptop, I did indeed have a slight illusion of being in an Apollo capsule.

Generally captured 20,000 frames at about 40fps, then sorted the best 5,000 frames in PIPP, then stacked the best 3,000 frames in AS2, before wavelets in Registax 6 and Deconvolution in Photoshop.

Links to high res version below (click on the images to zoom in):

Copernicus & Surrounds
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnka...posted-public/

Crater Clavius & Surrounds
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnka...posted-public/

Plato and Alpine Valley
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnka...posted-public/

Lunar Highlands
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnka...posted-public/

Clear skies and have a great Xmas.

John K.

[PhilTas (Phil)]

John,
If this is what you can achieve with mediocre seeing, I'd love to see your results in good conditions. I aspire to make lunar images like these.
Cheers Phil

[Atmos (Colin)]

Detail looks almost good enough to see the lunar rover

[DarkArts]

Fantastic shots. "Walking on the moon .... "

My ASI174MM arrived today. Can't wait to try it out and I think the Christmas Day full moon is going to be first light.

It was a near miss with the delivery though - there was a hole punched right through the package, box, padding, CD sleeve, and out the other side. It looked like it had been shot at. Luckily, it missed everything and nothing was damaged.

[astronobob (Bob)]

Extraordinary capturing & imaging John, , reckon every man & his dog will have these ZWO 174mm before too long - Juup & Saturn just around the corner for you = Happy Nights
Looking forward to seeing more from ya

[John K]

Originally Posted by PhilTas

John,
If this is what you can achieve with mediocre seeing, I'd love to see your results in good conditions. I aspire to make lunar images like these.
Cheers Phil

Thanks Phil - it was not great but it never is in Melbourne but PIPP has helped!

Originally Posted by Atmos

Detail looks almost good enough to see the lunar rover

Not quite but thanks!

Originally Posted by DarkArts

Fantastic shots. "Walking on the moon .... "

My ASI174MM arrived today. Can't wait to try it out and I think the Christmas Day full moon is going to be first light.

It was a near miss with the delivery though - there was a hole punched right through the package, box, padding, CD sleeve, and out the other side. It looked like it had been shot at. Luckily, it missed everything and nothing was damaged.

That's a lucky break! Did you get the cooled version?

Originally Posted by astronobob

Extraordinary capturing & imaging John, , reckon every man & his dog will have these ZWO 174mm before too long - Juup & Saturn just around the corner for you = Happy Nights
Looking forward to seeing more from ya

Indeed! It will be a great year for planetary imaging 2016!

[Dennis]

Very nice John, humongous image scale. Thanks also for the explanation of your technique and workflow; I thought I was pushing file sizes with 2,000 frame captures.

You must resolving stuff at the 1km scale?

Cheers

Dennis

[Star Catcher (Ted Dobosz)]

Spectacular stuff John! I have not tried imaging runs at the 20k frame level but your results show the potential. Thanks and looking forward to try it out.
Ted

[67champ]

Outstanding!!!

dana t

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Excellent images John!

Mike

[prokyon (Werner Probst)]

Great picturers John! Clavius and Highlands are my favorites.