Had a bit of fairly steady air before the clouds rolled in, but a gusty sea breeze exposed the inherent instability of the 12 inch Newt on an NEQ6. Nonetheless, there were enough steady frames at 60hz framerate to resolve some finer features. Took extra care refocusing between RGB sequences, so the stack has limb regions with some colour mismatch - now need to work out a way to compensate for that effect. Will also need to work out better way to place the moon after processing - done by eye in this case. Also seems to be a very bright spot on the equator-side edge of the NEB - looks interesting.
Nice shot. You have me confused about the placing of the moon after processing.... Wasn't it there ... Did you just add it in for effect?
I must have misunderstood somehow.
Hi Clive. No, there is nothing artificial at all. The moon is in different positions on the R G and B images, due to its rapid motion and since the position in the initial R G and B stack frames varies due to turbulence distortion. The moon needed to be RGB assembled independently of the planet and then reinserted over the top of the misaligned moon images in the planet image. It's still a real image though and processed the same way. The attached image shows what the moon looked like when the alignment was fixed on the planet.
Nice work Ray. Certainly one of the best to come out of AU this apparition. It's been a crap seeing epidemic the last few months.
I prefer the KISS method: I'd just use a mask, & a 2 itt. of Gaussian blur to fix the limb. Having a slight blurred limb makes it look more 3D as well.
