WYAS Moon Astrophotography Challenge 15th April 2014

As a one off challenge, we set a competition for one night to photgraph the full moon. 

This Full moon image was taken with a DSLR using an 8” SCT telescope. The image is a composite of 2 moon halves, each half being a high definition image made up of a stack of 30 DSLR images taken with 1/60^th second exposure at ISO 640 with a Canon 40D.  The two halves were then merged in Photoshop.

Moon 13th March 2014

This image of the Moon taken on Wednesday 13th March 2014 is a mosaic composite image. Taken using a Celestron 8" SCT and a DMK 21AU04 CCD Mono Image camera.

This composite image consists of 74 video .avi files, each of 1000 frames approx. 16 seconds in length. Each video file is processed using RegiStax to create a single .tif image. These single tif images are then assembled in Adobe Photoshop to create the final overall Moon image. 

Half Moon 10th November 2013

This image of the Moon taken on Sunday 10th November 2013 is a mosaic composite image created using HD video images. Taken using a Celestron 8" SCT and a DMK 21AU04 CCD Mono Image camera.


As the imaging sensor on the DMK camera is small, you can only image a small amount of the moon's surface. You take multiple videos of the small area that you can see and create a series of  video files that cover the overall moon's surface. This mosaic of video image files can then be processed and assembled to create the final overall image.


This image consists of 65 video .avi files, each of 2500 frames approx. 40 seconds in length. Each video file is processed using RegiStax to create a single .tif image. These single mosaic images are then assembled in Adobe Photoshop to create the final overall Half Moon image. The effect is a clearer image than that taken by a single DSLR image covering the full DSLR frame.  Open the image and zoom in and to see the depth of the some craters and features on the moon's surface.

The Harvest Moon

This is a composite image. The Luminance data was captured with a QHY5L-ll planetary camera and the colour was captured by a QHY8L OSC camera. The luminance was a stack of 500 frames all stacked in Registax, whilst the colour was a stack of 64 individual images. The moon has very little colour so the colour data is enhanced sinificantly in order to show the subtle hues.

18/9/2013

Moon 28th April 2013 02:23am ( 3 days Past Full Moon)

This is an image of the Moon taken in the early hours of Sunday 28th April at 02:23am at the WYAS observatory.

As per the image take on the 19th April, it was taken with a Celestron 8" SCT on the Large Pier with a Canon 40D DSLR. without a f6.3 reducer installed (see note below). 50 images were taken at 1/640th sec at ISO 1250 for approx. 1/2 the moon was imaged in each 50 image set (upper and lower). This is due to using the 8" SCT without the f6.3 reducer which does not give a full image of the moon within the DSLR image frame.  Each half moon image set was first stacked in RegiStax 5 using the RAW image frames. Then the stacked images was saved as 16Bit TIFF and imported in to Photoshop 6 using the MERGE option to combine the half moon images to a Full Moon image. Then it was lightly processed in Photoshop for the image as shown.

What is an f6.3 (f3.3) Focal Reducer:-

A focal reducer mounts directly to rear of a telescope and alters the field of view / focal length of the telescope for astrophotography. When an f6.3 reducer is fitted to an SCT which is normally f10 it reduces the f10 to f6.3 reducing the exposure time required to image a deep sky object. A typical 5 minutes exposure at f10 would be reduced to 3 minutes.  However, the focal length of the telescope is also reduced so the image object is reduced in size. A typical 8" SCT focal length 2000mm is reduced to 1260mm. This effectively provides a larger field of with within the DSLR image frame.  (The f3.3 does exactly the same changing an f10 to f3.3 but reducing a 2000mm focal length telescope to 660mm).

Moon Image (Just past 1st Qtr)

This is an image of the Moon taken on Friday 19th April 22:20 at the WYAS Observatory.

Taken using a Celestron 8" SCT on the Large Pier with a Canon 40D DSLR, PC connected and operated via Canon EOS for remote DSLR control. The image was also taken using a f6.3 reducer, (see note below). 50 images taken at 1/640th sec at ISO 1250. These were then stacked in RAW image format using the older RegiStax 5. The image saved as a 16bit TIFF and was then opened in PhotoShop and lightened a little to give the final image. 

What is an f6.3 (f3.3) Focal Reducer:-

A focal reducer mounts directly to rear of a telescope and alters the field of view / focal length of the telescope for astrophotography. When an f6.3 reducer is fitted to an SCT which is normally f10 it reduces the f10 to f6.3 reducing the exposure time required to image a deep sky object. A typical 5 minutes exposure at f10 would be reduced to 3 minutes.  However, the focal length of the telescope is also reduced so the image object is reduced in size. A typical 8" SCT focal length 2000mm is reduced to 1260mm. This effectively provides a larger field of with within the DSLR image frame.  (The f3.3 does exactly the same changing an f10 to f3.3 but reducing a 2000mm focal length telescope to 660mm).

Moon 6th October 2012

This is an image of the Moon taken at 02:10am Saturday 6th October 2012.

Taken using a Celestron 8" SCT on the Large Pier on the WYAS observatory telescope pad using a 40D Canon DSLR.

The final image is a composite of images taken at ISO 125.    4 x 1/40th sec, 32 x 1/40th sec, 44 x 1/60th sec.  each set stacked in RegiStax and then each stacked image finally stacked for the final composite.

I.O.W. Sept 2012

Well I thought it was a fairly good picture until I put it on here and can't rotate it portrait. It's saved in portrait. Any ideas guys?

Full Moon Mosaic

March 5th 2012  at WYAS

This image is the first Mosaic created using the WYAS Watec 120N Image Camera purchased at the end of 2011. This highly sensitive camera can be used not only to create images of Deep Sky objects at extremely long distances with Very Low Light levels, it can also work quiet happily on the very bright Full Moon. The camera is indeed a  great piece of kit for the society and its members to use.

This image was created using 63 .avi files each file being 1.1Mb in size, each .avi is then processed in RegiStax, each .tif image in then cropped and using CS5, is assembled to give the final image using the 63 separate images. .avi collection took 2 1/2 hours and final processing in excess of 12 hours .

This sort of image creation takes time and patience.

Crescent Moon Mosaic

This is a photo mosaic of the crescent moon on the 26th March 2012.   This was taken using a Phillips SPC800 Web cam on my 8" Celestron U2K SCT. It consists of 25 .avi files taken using iMerge to ensure a full image was captured. Then the .avi files are processed to give single images which are then merged in iMerge to give this image on the right.

Final processing is then done in CS5 to achieve this final image as below on the RIGHT. The image immediately below for comparison is a composite of 31 images on my Canon 40D DSLR stacked to give the final crescent moon.

Which do you prefer ????

The Moon, Venus, Jupiter and the Winter Constellations

This image was taken on 25th March 2012 and shows the Moon, Venus and Jupiter alongside the great Winter Constellations of Orion and Taurus. In the foreground is Darrington Church.

The image was taken with a Canon EOS550d on a tripod. Exposure was 15 seconds at f3.5, ISO 200 and a focal length of 18mm.

The Moon - 28/01/2012

The Moon was out, I had a new scope, so I took a picture of it. What more can I say!
The setup was a bit lacking in focal length though, need to try sticking a Powermate in the middle next time.......

The Moon and Venus - 27th Jan 2012

The Moon and Venus made a lovely sight in the twilight sky last night so I couldn't resist taking a picture!
No telescope was used for this image, it's just a simple DSLR shot through a 50mm prime lens, and on a tripod of course. Darrington church is in the foreground.

Canon EOS550d, 50mm lens, ISO200, 4sec exposure at f2.8.

The Moon - 23:00 BST 14/08/2011

It may be the sworn enemy of the deep sky astronomer (me), but the Moon still makes a nice photograph!
Taken with a Canon EOS550d and Skywatcher 200P, the exposure is 1/1000sec at ISO100.
Even with no enhancement it's possible to see the different colours in the Mare, indicating different compositions of basalt. The bright rays from the crater Tycho (lower centre) show up really well when the phase is near full.

Moon - The Southern Highlands. 14thJan2011

I took this image of the southern highland region using the WYAS 14" and my Canon EOS 550d. The seeing was quite bad but I managed to get a fairly sharp shot with a fast shutter speed. The craters Tycho (centre) and Clavius (with the arc of craters on the floor) are nicely illuminated. No processing has been done on the image other than cropping out the poorly lit RHS.

A crater on the Moon, but which?

Taken on the 23rd of April from Austerfield, with an old Philips 740 webcam and a Vixen VMC260L, 3000mm EFL. There were no clouds but so much haze that the Moon had difficulty getting through. As for stars, I could only see Arcturus. The sky was also like jelly, but nonetheless I had to try, rather than waste a 10 mile drive. 600 frames taken and processed in Registax, with a bit of work in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.
So which crater is it? I think it's Copernicus, but I may be wrong.

Looking West from WYAS - 16/04/2010

The 56hr old Moon, Venus and the Pleiades (upper left of the Moon) all in a line. Mercury would have completed the line-up but I think it was hidden behind the cloud low down, I didn't see it at all on this particular evening.
Taken using a Canon EOS 550d and EF 50mm f1.8 lens, 5sec exposure at f4, ISO100.

the Moon - but you knew that.

This was taken on the 23rd of March through a 14" Meade, afocally, with my little Samsung M110 point-and-shoot-camera, by putting the lens up to the eyepiece of the telescope.