First Moonage with the DMK

sheeny (Al) · #1 15-03-2008, 11:15 PM

It's been so long since I've done any real imaging and with a new camera I feel like a newbie all over again.

The seeing wasn't too good tonight unfortunately, and the moon is very low in the sky. I'm sure these aren't as good as my best with the ToUcam (taken under more favourable conditions

).

1. Aliacensis and Werner.
2. Walter.
3. Regiomontanus and Purbach.
4. Aristoteles and Eudoxus.

All captured with the DMK at 60fps, MAP processed, stacked, wavelets and histo stretch in Registax V4.

Al.

RB (Andrew) · #2 15-03-2008, 11:51 PM

I think they're great Al, you've done v.well with the new DMK.
I've yet to image anything with mine so I can't talk.
I feel like a total newbie too.

Perhaps the only thing I'd suggest is to adjust the contrast a little in PS to bring out a bit more detail.

Looking forward to more.

iceman (Mike) · #3 16-03-2008, 07:24 AM

I think they're great Al, nice and sharp, but like RB said totally lacking contrast.

Give them some punch in PS!

I can't wait to see what you do with it when the moon is high and the seeing is good!

Dennis · #4 16-03-2008, 07:33 AM

An excellent portfolio Al – some nice, fine detail in those craters. Top stuff, let alone for a first time effort.

Cheers

Dennis

sheeny (Al) · #5 16-03-2008, 01:03 PM

OK, here they are again with a bit more processing. Mostly just level and curves, add a border and text in PS CS3. There's a few others I hadn't processed last night as well.

BTW these were all captured with the DMK, through the C8, with 2.5X powermate and UV/IR filter.

Al.

sheeny (Al) · #6 16-03-2008, 01:24 PM

Here's a mosaic of the 3 shots in the Walter Purbach Region.

These were assembled in PS CS3 using photomerge from the unsharpened stacks. Wavelets were then applied in Registax v4 and the final image was then black masked, cropped, border and text added in PS CS3.

I think I've pushed the data as hard as I can - it's showing a few artifacts.

Al.

Stephen65 · #7 16-03-2008, 02:33 PM

Those are excellent images, especially for a low altitude Moon. The waxing Moon is so low right now that I have given up trying to get good images, instead I'm going to wait till after full Moon and try to image the much higher altitude waning Moon. Perhaps a little bit less gain in the original capture?

PS: I had a bit of trouble trying to orientate the pics to the standard (north is up, west is to the right) orientation. Are they L/R mirror-imaged due to the use of a diagonal? I don't use a diagonal when imaging, if you can reach focus straight-through then it saves a potential source of scatter and light loss. I also orientate my images to the standard orientation for ease of comparison with maps and other images, even though this is giving in to northern hemispherism.

sheeny (Al) · #8 16-03-2008, 02:41 PM

Thanks Stephen. I was using quite a bit of gain to keep the exposure time down.

Al.

Stephen65 · #9 16-03-2008, 02:50 PM

That's always something I try to balance - you want to have short exposures to "cut through" the turbulence better, but too much gain and it gets washed out. I tend to image at 30fps at higher magnification because trying to keep it at 60fps does require too much gain.