I'm having an issue getting rastoring in all of my stacks from last night (discussion for another section).
This was taken through an original model 80mm Megrez on a camera tripod (Manfrotto something or other with gear head) with my Player One Neptune (IMX178) colour camera.
It wasn't an attempt to take images of the moon, I have thousands, better than this, is was trying to get my infinity focal point figured out with the Megrez for shooting nebulae.
Tonight if the cloud disappears I'll take the same image again with my Nikon D810, they are crisper.
I've added a second image which shows the rastor lines I kept finding in my stacks. I was using Autostakkert 4, I didn't try with registax to see if I got a similar result. Both images are 150 frames or best of.
EDIT: My ignorance, the first image is around 300 frames or the best of. I don't remember if I made any changes within Autostakkert between images. I think I'm too stupid to do this stuff now!
Mate, not too bad. I think I like the second of the two best.
You beat me to it. I'm planning to do the same tonight if the clouds stay away (as much a test 'n' calibration as anything else).
That's what mine was for Warren. Tonight I may check out the correct focal point of the D810 on the same target (one day later) if the sky clears, a little cloud around at the moment and strong-ish wind which has been dropping off early evenings. Soon it will be way too windy here.
I think the higher stacked frame count puts clearer detail in the first image. Enlarged the rastor lines are more obvious on the second.
The moon is a great target for obtaining near accurate focus because it's bright and easy to find even with a standard tripod and also fast exposure times. The gear-head actually makes it easier than the ball-head too.
Oh, I'll grind a new pin for you tomorrow, 0.05mm longer?
Looking good Leo. I've always found Autostakkert 4 to be pretty reliable but you may need to play with the align points a bit. Don't forget you can eliminate individual frames by pressing the space bar if they get corrupted during the data transfer (I get a few like this sometimes with glitchy patterns through them)
I forgot to mention this image was captured before dark and that may very well present part of my problem. It was intended for calibration purposes initially.
Tonight after dark I played with my little Megrez and poked the 5 times powermate into my self designed adapter. That's when I learnt I can't stack Nikon RAW (.NEF) images. There's a reason I wanted RAW and not JPG, oh well, I'll just do two RAW frames (converted to .tif) stitched in MS ICE and see how it looks.
It won't be at 5 times, plus I used my D810. I remember reading by varying the position of the Powermate I could vary the magnification with the 5 times. I've forgotten what I read but I'll be designing a new purpose made adaptor which will be adjustable soon when I can get the alloy to turn up on the lathe (and a boring bar, I don't seem to have one).
Interesting capers Leo, after reading through comments my logic leans towards program capabilities, maybe try varying things, stacking only 50 images, or as David’s mention of alignment points, try a lot more or less of them if that is an option, some progs let you add one alignment point at a time for instance, , !
The moon is a big bright object and it can wobble at different frequencies across the surface, could cause further issues particularly if less favourable seeing conditions are used ?
Also try stacking in another program just to ascertain if is a program issu, could also do google or YouTube search ?
Just my basic Bob’s worth…
Last edited by astronobob; 09-04-2025 at 01:14 PM.
Reason: Corrections
