Got a decent telescope for Christmas and want to try my hand at some astrophotography, been using the moon for practice, I have some night time shots, but took this one today in the day time and it's probably my favourite so far.
Can I have some honest opinions and maybe some input on how I can do it better?
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>>2745015
1) People have seen the moon, so just a photo of the moon, while being a personal accomplishment for you, doesn't really have a whole lot to offer your viewer, unless it's really special, which this isn't.
2) You need to work on your composition. You're only using about 1/3rd of your frame, and the rest isn't doing much to support the scene
3) You need to work on your post processing. This looks really soft and muddy, which can be polished up quite a bit in post if you know what you're doing. Also, the darkened corners are distracting. Cloning out dust is pretty important too.
4) Shooting technique. I'm not sure how good your telescope is, but you're not getting a lot of fine detail out of it, so you're never going to "wow" anyone until you solve that hiccup.
>>2745019
Yeah I know the moon isn't the most impressive or rare thing in the sky lol, but as I said I'm just using it as practice until I get my technique better.
The only using 1/3rd of the frame issue could be solved by cropping, right?
What's good software to use post? I have GIMP, but I'm still learning the basics really. The corners being dark is because of the scope, but that's easily cropped out I guess,.
The fine detail seems to depend a lot on the clouds and atmosphere. I see a lot more details with my 2X Barlow lens, but with the moon only being in crescent phase, the magnification doesn't leave me much to focus on. I'm hoping to get some better shots using it at half or full moon.
Here's one of the night time pics I took, they all came out quite blurry, but I realised it was my fault, the hot air from my houses heating system kept blowing in front of the scope -_-
So basically, crop more, learn post processing technique?
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>>2745024
for moon photos, try incorporating some scenery into the shot, here's an attempt I made a while back
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>>2745029
I don't have photoshop, is it possible to do this with GIMP? Also, what did you do to get it this sharp?
>>2745030
But everybody will know that the scenery is just shopped in? It would impossible to get a pic like that naturally.
>>2745045
>It would impossible to get a pic like that naturally.
What? Why?
>>2745043
I don't use Gimp, but I've been lead to believe it can do most things photoshop can do.
For sharpening, I made a new layer, ran a high pass filter over it at a larger radius (around 5 pixels) and set it to overlay. Then copied all layers to a new layer, and rand a second high pass filter on that layer, to a much lower radius (Around 1.8 I think) and set that to overlay.
I copied all layers to a new layer again, and put a gaussian blur over it to try to deal with the noise, and masked it away from the moon itself.
Made a curves layer, preserved the bright points with an anchor, and then lowered the tones for the mids and shadows to add contrast. Then masked it away from the corners to lessen the effect of the vignette.
>>2745052
>What? Why?
To get the moon that size with the crater detail and have the pylon and trees in it like that, the moon would need to be a lot closer to the earth than it ever actually gets?
>>2745057
That is 100% false. You just need to find things to put in front of the moon that are very far away.
>>2745057
Long telephoto lenses like 400mm has that kind of compression. Clean air, a silhouette in front of the rising moon and a long tele lens is the only things you need. No shopping needed.
Also the closer the moon is to the horizon the bigger it looks due to atmospheric lensing.
>>2745045
why would it be? Both are essentially at infinity focus.
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>>2745163
>Also the closer the moon is to the horizon the bigger it looks due to atmospheric lensing.
That would be the ponzo illusion at work actually. Nothing to do with atmosphere, it's to do with visual reference points
>>2745210
Your monitor's blacks aren't displaying correctly, I can see the rotated rectangle around the moon and trees.
>>2745224
Finish a school first before you start spewing bullshit
>>2745728
Feel free to cite something.
>>2745728
>How about you study some physics?
How about you study some astrophotography, astronomy and psychology?
The diameter of the moon is always around half a degree. any slight change is due to it's elliptical orbit.
>>2745015
What mirror size and focal length does your telescope have?
guess what this was taken with?
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>>2745784
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>>2745784
An potato
>>2745836
One of those vaped potatos
>>2745248
Oh shit, nice catch! thats when I pasted it ontop of a black layer, the sky was a bit lighter than pure black.
>>2745045
not shopped m8
was using a 300mm with a cheap 2x tele, at infinity focus
try taking a image of Jupiter or some other planet. I am just getting into this as well and trying to learn how to get good shots with limit equipment as well. I do use Gimp just to help clean up my image. Curves, unsharpened mask, so on. I use Stellarium (free) to help me pick out when and where to look for things. I tried taking a image of a Nebula tonight for the first time. Mind you I am using my cell phone to do so.
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>>2745015
Without the corner vignetting and the dirt/smudges, this picture would make me moist. Why didn't you make me moist OP?
contributing. I wish I had a telescope...
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This is a K5 with SMC Pentax 1000mm/11
(a catadioptric / mirror lens) and a slightly murky 2xTC of I forget what brand.
Exif adjusted to reflect the above.
Supported by bunching up a towel on top of a brick wall, spot metering and shooting numerous shots for focus bracketing, and picking the one that was most in focus and least effected by the atmosphere at that moment.
ie: nothing fancy. No tripod. No mirror lockup bs. And I was pretty much under a streetlight in a major city.
I plan to see how this lens on my new Q7 compares... at 4550mm 35mmEquiv
or 9100mm 35mmEquiv if I can bring myself to use the 2xTC again.
...but shooting the moon is a pain in the ass, and fairly pointless really.
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since everyone is in the moons (and who wouldn't be )
here is the one I took with my scope and cell phone
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I think this is my best Moon. 'Scope with x2 barlow, D40, a mosaic of the best details
>>2746235
Why is your Moon upside down m8?
>>2745015
Nice to see new people getting into astrophotography! I create threads about astrophoto sometimes, but I'm more a deep sky guy - not much experience about planetary imaging. For lunar photography you want to try a software called Registax.
Basically, you take a lot of shots of your subject (with the same camera settings), and the software will add them together, and really bring out the detail. Registax has a number of silders for micro-contrast adjustments. Hard to explain, just search something like "registax moon" on youtube and you will find what you need.
Right now I'm outside with my scope shooting the comet Catalina, but I'll probably soon die from hypothermia. If I dont I'll post results later.
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>>2746357
Why is your moon upside down, mate?
I took this one hand held with a 250mm lens. I wish I had a telescope.
>>2746147
Nice!
>>2746257
I love the detail.
>>2746357
Wow!
>>2746661
I love the color in this.
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>>2746687
Wrong damn image.
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