First attempt at high-resolution Moon mosaic

[Retrograde (Pete)]

After being clouded out right on ingress the other night during the occultation, I thought I'd have a go at using the video mode on my Pentax K-5 DSLR to make a high-res mosaic of the Moon.

It's a bit over-sharpened (as it's my first real go at wavelets in Registax) but came out OK for a 'proof of concept'. Made from 6 images each of which is a stack of 80 frames. Used the trusty ED102 & 4 x Powermate.

Higher resolution here: http://www.astrobin.com/111783/

[cometcatcher (Kevin)]

A bit over sharpened as you mentioned.

I haven't even tried video on my K-5 yet. Must get around to it one year. Video wasn't real crash hot on the old K-x.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Lovely Pete! it might only need a notch or two dialling back of the sharpness in the coarse controls.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Thanks Dunk. I'm quite amazed by the flexibility of modern DSLRs for astro work to be honest and Registax is an amazingly powerful tool.

The North Group ED102 does a pretty reasonable job on most things but I do get some false colour when photographing really bright objects (though very little when doing visual ) which then has to be processed out. The seeing at my place was very poor on Monday night too - the orginal video footage looks like it was taken underwater!

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Yeah they are, I'm using a bargain-basement 1100D and have been having a lot of fun with it...but the capturing is just the beginning! I've found it quite rewarding to learn processing techniques - and long may it continue

Your scope seems to do a pretty darn good job, maybe it's just my eyes / my computer or whatever, but I'm struggling to see false colour in that stack mate

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Originally Posted by Camelopardalis

I'm struggling to see false colour in that stack mate

That's 'cos I removed it in PS .

Being a triplet you wouldn't expect too much anyway however I'm wondering if it might be worth getting the collimation looked at by someone who knows what they're doing as I get some red-fringing on one-side of a bright object & blue on the other.

I did have a couple of - err - 'little accidents' a while ago where the azimuth bearing on the alt-az mount slipped its lock (whilst I was swapping from eyepiece to camera & the balance was out) and banged hard on the mount and another where the dovetail slipped out of the holder when I thought it was locked in so maybe the collimation is out a bit. Just as well I don't own a Tak I guess

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Ah OK I missed the "processed out" bit on first parse