Moon shot taken with big-ass telescope

[roygoh]

Hi,

Borrowed a Meade 8" Newtonian from a colleague, and managed to capture these shots of the moon on 30 Jun. Set up is CP995 + DCL28 (eyepiece/adapter) + telescope. ISO 100, 1/60 sec. Focus-locked to infinity on camera and manually focused using the telescope focuser and LCD screen.

The full-moon shot is stitched from 9 different shots, so the full-size resolution is 3500 X 3500 pixels. What's shown here is at 750 X 750 pixels.

The second shot is one of the shots that made up the full-moon stitched shot.

Processing in PS includes the following:
- Manual stitching
- Convert Green channel into grey scale
- Levels and Curves to enhance contrast
- Despeckle
- USM
- Resize for web posting

Your comments are welcomed!

Thanks for viewing.

- Roy

By the way, this is my all-time favourite moon shot so far, taken last Jun using CP995 + DCL28 + Meade ETX90RA:

 

[sulhan]

Gret one Roy....

I've always wondered...whay are all planets and moons round like a ball.....
God knows....

rgds,
sulhan

 

[roygoh]

Gret one Roy....

I've always wondered...whay are all planets and moons round like a ball.....
God knows....

rgds,
sulhan

Thanks Sulhan!

Actually the Earth is not exactly spherical, but compressed sligtly along the polar axis because of its rotation I believe.

I am no expert in astronomy, but I think stars, planets and moons are generally spherical because gravity acts equally in all directions. When these are initially formed from galactic dust collecting due to gravity, the most natural shape is the sphere, which is symmetrical all-round. However, due to the rotation at the time of formation, the centrifugal force also deforms the sphere slightly, making it bulge out at the equator.

Maybe Starman, Wai and Ian can also share their knowledge here.

- Roy

 

[rainman]

round is the basic shape for many things....

water droplet, atoms..etc

 

[raychan]

Ooooh.....really nice shot of the moon. However, I believe the last photo wasn't shot on the same date as the others as it is not a full-moon....unless there was an eclipse on the 30th ???

Is there anyway fellow 'lunatics' can see your full, uncompressed version ?

Very little noise coming from the CP995 considering that the camera is considered "aged" by today's standards. Alternatively, that would have meant that you've spent a considerable amount of time PSing it.

Have you tried pointing the 8" scope at Jupiter or Saturn ? The other challenge for me now is to photograph the Internation Space Station in orbit. NASA's website gives a rough indication as to when the ISS will be passing by the region. As the ISS passes by relatively fast, you'll need to be there at precisely the moment it sweeps through the flight path. :thumbsup:

 

[roygoh]

Ooooh.....really nice shot of the moon. However, I believe the last photo wasn't shot on the same date as the others as it is not a full-moon....unless there was an eclipse on the 30th ???

Is there anyway fellow 'lunatics' can see your full, uncompressed version ?

Very little noise coming from the CP995 considering that the camera is considered "aged" by today's standards. Alternatively, that would have meant that you've spent a considerable amount of time PSing it.

Have you tried pointing the 8" scope at Jupiter or Saturn ? The other challenge for me now is to photograph the Internation Space Station in orbit. NASA's website gives a rough indication as to when the ISS will be passing by the region. As the ISS passes by relatively fast, you'll need to be there at precisely the moment it sweeps through the flight path. :thumbsup:

Thanks!

The last photo was taken last year in Jun also. So far that is my favourite and I am using it as my desktop wallpaper.

Will consider posting the full-reolution version later.

CP995 is very usable at ISO100 and a little stretched at ISO200. Furthermore, I use only the Green channel when converting to greyscale, and Green usually has the lest noise amongst the 3 channels because there are twice as many green pixels in the CCD as there are Blue or Red pixels. Furthermore, the CCD is probably most sensitive to Green, thus the gain setting for Green pixels can be lower than Red and Blue.

I will try Jupiter soon. Heard that the moons are easily visible now, even with 10X binoculas. As for the ISS, that is a challenge I have not thought of pursuing yet.. :embrass:

- Roy

 

[Patryk]

That is a really big ass telescope...wish i could afford one...yeah right..

 

[raychan]

Has anyone managed to shoot a photo of the International Space Station before ? Saw a couple on the net, but the quality isn't that good.

Just imagine showing a photo of the ISS to your friends.....Guess they should be awestruck ! But, trying to catch a glimpse of a shiny, tiny satellite on ground zero is like trying to locate an ostrich flying south for the winter.....yeah right !!!!

 

[Wai]

Very Good, lots of details, have u tried using moon filter?

look like u are going to get one of those big-ass telescope for yourself soon?

 

[roygoh]

Very Good, lots of details, have u tried using moon filter?

look like u are going to get one of those big-ass telescope for yourself soon?

Thanks!

I ave not used a moon filter, though the package I borrowed from my colleague did include one. I was too eager to try out the scope after I set it up and I forgot all about the filter... :embrass:

Currently no budget for telescopes....but I will try to keep this scope as long as I can :devil: ..I think he would not mind as he has not used it for a long time

 

[Wai]

Quick, drive to somewhere dark and try shooting deep sky

 

[suyi_84]

Wow! That's very nice! I always wanted a shot of the moon ever since I saw it nestled between two mountains right outside the balcony of my hotel room in Switzerland! Pity my camera was spoilt! It was sooooo close!

But those are very nice shots!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Good job! :bigeyes:

I'm amazed!

 

[roygoh]

Wow! That's very nice! I always wanted a shot of the moon ever since I saw it nestled between two mountains right outside the balcony of my hotel room in Switzerland! Pity my camera was spoilt! It was sooooo close!

But those are very nice shots!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Good job! :bigeyes:

I'm amazed!

Welcome to Clubsnap! And thanks for dedicating your first post here to my thread. Hope you enjoy your stay here.

- Roy

 

[Ian]

Thanks Sulhan!

Actually the Earth is not exactly spherical, but compressed sligtly along the polar axis because of its rotation I believe.

I am no expert in astronomy, but I think stars, planets and moons are generally spherical because gravity acts equally in all directions. When these are initially formed from galactic dust collecting due to gravity, the most natural shape is the sphere, which is symmetrical all-round. However, due to the rotation at the time of formation, the centrifugal force also deforms the sphere slightly, making it bulge out at the equator.

- Roy

The shape is an oblate spheroid It's a slight bulge at the equator caused by the effect of rotation and gravity, also known as centrifugal force.

The reason why planets and stars are oblate spheriods is because they rotate and it's the naturally occuring shape if you acrete material in a vacuum that has a rotational force due to gravity.

 

[Ian]

Has anyone managed to shoot a photo of the International Space Station before ? Saw a couple on the net, but the quality isn't that good.

Just imagine showing a photo of the ISS to your friends.....Guess they should be awestruck ! But, trying to catch a glimpse of a shiny, tiny satellite on ground zero is like trying to locate an ostrich flying south for the winter.....yeah right !!!!

It's very very difficult to do... it requires a telescope that can slew (track) at very highspeed and that is extremely stable ... most simply aren't capable of this.