The Moon .jpg

zeus

zeus

out of date
Im feeling quite proud of this pic I took tonight. Especially when I google for pics with the same equipment. Its my very first attempt at this kind of thing though I have used CCDs on a decent telescope with Drs and Profs showing us what to do. Basically I can reduce the raw data and apply dark frames.

http://www.hardwareforums.com/photoplog/image-718/

Moon
9/12/08 21:33 approx 0'c
Canon 350d 90-300 @ 300
30 frames of 1/1000s f5.6 ISO200
5 dark frames of 1/1000s
Reduced and combined in MaxDSLR.... only one High-pass kernel sharpening filter was used.
Cropped and reduced to 75% of original (Im not sure how the gallery has resized it. 75% crop might not be true)


Here is another from tonight. (10/12/08)
It is essentially the same only taken at 16:02 and at ISO800.
http://www.hardwareforums.com/photoplog/image-719/
 
now you're just showing off[ot]donkey slaps the back of Zeus's legs, in the hope that Zeus returns the favour by slapping the back of donkey's legs[/ot]but good pics

BTW: i'm a plank, i spent 3 hours trying to figure out why mplayer dependencies wouldn't install & finally realized that i was having a problem that was showing as fixed, so, i had a cig & did some good thinking, i finally realized & did apt-get upgrade :doh: i'm a proper plank
 
Weird, I was thinking about doing this a couple of nights ago (well taking photos of the moon). Yours are really good though (I prefer the first one). I only have an 18-200 though so with 6megapixels, cropping would make the image look pretty crap!
 
Well if your gonna have a crack tonight is the night..... weather permitting, of course.

The moon is 28,000km closer than usual tonight which means its 14% bigger in the sky and 30% brighter.

Take a sequence of 5-30 frames, in raw. And also about 1-5 dark frames. (basically leave all your settings the same and put the lens cap on the lens to take a black photo) Dont worry about Bias and Flat fields.
You will probably be able to use autofocus but you will have to set the iso/apeture/exposure yourself. Ignore you exposure guide.... just get the moon to look slightly under exposed on the lcd.

Assuming the moon isnt too bright for your shutter speed.... 200mm@f/6.3 and slow "film"
There is little difference between 100 and 400 on DSLRs. I went for 200 because.... well, just because!
(why the hell do we use ISO/ASA!!!)

You will then need to open the raw data, apply the dark frames, convert to colour and stack the images. There are loads of freeware programs around to do this. Photoshop can do it too but your pulling a trailer with a motorbike by using photoshop. MaximDL, maxdslr and Nebulosity are best.... in that order. (maximDL is just maxdslr for telescopes.



You will be able to get some decent deep space shots with your camera. The problem with the sky is that the earth spins (obviously!!) so your stars become streaks. As long as your keep the lens pointing towards the north star you should be able to get 2min or so. 2min x 30 frames and some matching up afterwards will give you a good shot.
My tripod mount slipped on both my shots of the moon so much so that the first frame didnt even overlap the last frame. I just picked a bright crater for maxdslr to use as a reference and it matched up good.
 
Thanks for the advice! Shame it's raining tonight :(... I *might* try in the morning if it's dark, I'll be up about 6.30, so might be worth a try!
 
Man, that's AWESOME! I love the moon. And these pictures are definitely really nice! :good:

How/why are you into this business? A hobby or in any way related to what you do for a living?
 
Ive always been into photography... I was given a Praktica m42 cap with as bunch of zeiss lenses. Then I did an a-level. Then did a (yeah, just one) freelance job and sacked it off. I cant use a camera for art but am good at macro. Im getting into taking pictures of the sky now. Ive done two uni qualifications based on astronomy, planetary science n stuff and had to learn how to use a ccd for imaging.

Ive gotta get a telescope! It would be cheaper for me to fly to the US and buy one there and ship it back over buying one here. Even second hand!
 
zeus said:
I cant use a camera for art but am good at macro. Im getting into taking pictures of the sky now.
Click to expand...

Nice.. I can't decide what type of photography I like :) I've taken some nice portraits, some nice macro, and some nice landscapes! I'm not good enough to be a professional, but I enjoy it.

I have a Saturday in a photography shop, so I get to see allsorts, and play around with new cameras (lately the Sony Alpha 350). Shame they don't do photography A-Level at my college!

I really want a Sigma 10-20 lens, but they're like £300+, so can't really justify one on my crappy D40 body.
 
Yeah, just take images of what you enjoy. Ive done a fair bit of landscape photography because I like walking in the hills. I live just on the good side of the North Wales border so things like Snowdon and Vyrnwy are only 30mins away. Portrature is hard... if you can do it theres easy money in it. Especially things like school photos. But its not much fun. Id prefer to be swinging from the trees in the Amazon!

Ive always wanted a fisheye lens. Something like a 8mm for those nightime buses in town. Im a little out of touch with dslrs and what lenses are about but from my 35mm days I learn to decide against the zoom "special" lenses. Non zoom are far better. But its 11 years since I was up to date so...!



The A-level photography was good but if you read Basic Photography by Michael Langford you've as good as got one! Lots of processing and printing though. No my idea of fun. The large format and Mamiya 645s were nice to use!
 
Nice moon pics, good detail on the pics you can see the impact craters very well and also the trail that was left behind from the impact, well done :)
 
Thanks. Ive fixed the colour on the second one... just haven't uploaded it yet. Not a clear sky since the two days I took them.
 
Here is the second image with the colour corrected..... almost
http://www.hardwareforums.com/photoplog/image-721/

Moon
10/12/08 16:02
Canon 350d 90-300 @ 300
30 frames of 1/1000s f5.6 ISO800
5 dark frames of 1/1000s
Reduced and combined in MaxDSLR.... only one High-pass kernel sharpening filter was used.

The full size (6mp) originals auto resized in windows on a 15" screen look amazing. These zoomed in images look out of focus but the complete images look sharp. I tried up loading them but it just doesnt work cos of resizing.

They're on my facebook if your interested but they still aint big enough.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=709950268&ref=name
 
Ill accpet it in a mo. I set those images so that I thought they would come up to everyone.
 
Final.jpg



final2.jpg
 
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