Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

The images below were taken on the evening of 4/19/2024 at a 4064mm focal length using a full frame DSLR in 4K video mode. Since the full image wouldn't fit into a single frame multiple videos were taken each around 2 minutes long. For each video ~ 50% (~1800) of the best frames were stacked to improve the image to reduce the atmospheric turbulence. The stacked images were then combined into a single image of the entire moon. The first image is the moon as it appears to the eye. The second image has the color greatly enhanced to bring out the subtle colors on the lunar surface. Both images required some compression to fix under the 20meg limit.
All questions comments and suggestions are welcome.

Waxing gibbous moon actual color.

(Download)


(Download)

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

At first I was about to say, you have very steady skies, until I read your post. People that take single exposures of the Moon don't realize how much the atmosphere plays a part.
Nice job and the details came out beautifully.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi alberio
Thanks for checking out the image and for the comment. Yep, the longer the focal length the more the atmospheric turbulence blurs the detail, however stacking many images greatly reduces the effect of that turbulence.

Bubalola Loc: Big Apple, NY

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi Bubalola
Thanks for viewing the Gibbous Moon Image and the Thumbs up.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

I much prefer the 1st image; much more natural. However, the color enhanced version is nicely artistic...

bwa

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi bwana
Thanks for viewing the images of the Waxing Gibbous Moon and for the comment. The color image although not natural does give a better idea of the mineral distribution on the moon. The orange areas show higher concentrations of iron oxide (FeO) and bluer areas show higher concentrations of Titanium oxide (TiO2). The whiter areas are locations of more recent impacts.

rbtree Loc: Shoreline, WA, United States

Great stuff!! Which scope? Tracker?

I now have a Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTi--have yet to dial it in..much to learn!

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi rbtree
Thanks for checking out the lunar images and for the comment.
I used a Meade LX 200 16 inch Schmidt Cassegrain telescope with a canon EOS 5D Mark IV in 4K video mode to capture multiple 2 minute videos. The mount used was an Astrophysics 1600GTO mount set for lunar rate tracking. Each video was process with PIPP (Planetary Imaging PreProcessor) to convert the .mov files from the canon to .ser files that could be used by Autostakkert to stack the video frames. I then use Registax6 to do some wavelet processing on each stacked image to sharpen it up. The images where then combined with Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) to make a full image of the moon since the prime focus of the Meade is 4064mm and only a part of the moon could be imaged in each video. Pixinsight was used to increase the saturation on the second image. Note: The only software that isn't freeware is Pixinsight.

If you are interested my Website has other astro images I have taken and an information section on each image (the i icon). Most of the images contain information on how the image was taken (filters, camera, lens, number of images stacked and processing done).

https://ballardbare.smugmug.com/Astronomical-Images

rbtree Loc: Shoreline, WA, United States

Thanks a bunch. Impressive gear and workflow plus explanation.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Hi rbtree
You are very welcome. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.