A Lunapic From On The Grass...

[StarStuff (Ian)]

morning all...

after spending a couple of nights dodging the clouds, getting acquainted with my new mount and getting my head around the polar-scope (thanks Max)... i hooked up my cam and set my sights on the moon as my first subject... hardly surprising i suppose...

image is a mosaic made from 7 frames... taken with VLounge and processed Corel PSP X3...

this is my first attempt at processing... comments and advice welcome...

my setup...
Saxon 114mm f/8 Newt.
Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro GoTo
Modded Philips SPC900NC
Bintel GSO ND-96 Moon Filter

cheers
Ian...

[batema (Mark)]

If that was my first photo I would be wrapped. Congratulations it looks great and yes try to muck around with some really obvious bright objects to start with. You could have a crack at Jupiter but a barlow lens would assist. Why not have a go at M42 if your web cam is modded as you should be able lengthen the exposure time.

Mark

[StarStuff (Ian)]

thanks Mark... i'm pretty pleased with it... and surprised how much the image improved with a few tweaks in psp...
i'm keen to give M42 a go... but the weather hasnt been agreeable... its looking a little better for the weekend... fingers crossed!!!

cheers
Ian...

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

For a first pic, you must be stoked!
You just need to tone down your highlights a bit is all. The brighter parts of the image are a bit burnt out.
You've got good data to start with, that's the main thing. So keep practicing your processing.

[StarStuff (Ian)]

thanks jjjnette...
i collected quite a few images that night and intend have another go at processing... very much trial and error at the moment... and trying to remember what steps i take so i can repeat the process... i'm using corel PSP at the moment, simply because i am a little more familiar with it... but will have a go with CS5 in the near future...
as luck has it i have the night off tonight, which was unexpected... clear skies (also unexpected) and a full moon (ok... this i did know about!)... not going to see much of the eclipse from here in SA but hopefully i will get some decent images of the full moon to 'play' with...

cheers
Ian...

[NorthernLight (Max)]

I am really amazed how well you got the moon, what are you using to process your frames?

[StarStuff (Ian)]

thanks Max...

i think the most valuable lesson i learned from this is the amount of detail that can be teased out of an otherwise bland image with a few clicks and drags of the mouse... even in my uneducated hands...

the processing was pretty basic...

the original frames were taken with VLounge, 7 frames in total... then pasted into PSP as layers...

i spent a little time re-arranging the order of the layers to hide the joins as best as i could... made a couple of small adjustments to the brightness/contrast of individual layers and the joins all but disappeared...

from there it gets a little fuzzy... i tried a few adjustments, hit 'undo' a lot, and generally played around...

from what i remember the adjustments that i kept were...
High Pass Sharpen
Levels
Curves
Brightness/Contrast
Unsharp Mask
Highlight/Midtone/Shadow

not necessarily in that order...

i would have liked to tone down the whites a little more, but that eluded me...

i will keep that in mind on my next attempt and reduce the contrast on the raw images???

cheers...
Ian...