[Theme] Show us your best moon (and solar system) images

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Fons, this has certainly been fun and one can always hope for days with even better seeing that will improve upon it. I like to think I captured a hint of a cloud pattern on Venus, but at 3x drizzle it is hard to distinguish from processing artifacts.

[Akira]

Thanks Fons, this has certainly been fun and one can always hope for days with even better seeing that will improve upon it. I like to think I captured a hint of a cloud pattern on Venus, but at 3x drizzle it is hard to distinguish from processing artifacts.

Amazing result of the Venus that looks spherical!  The closeups of the black spots of the sun are to appreciate, too!

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks for the enthusiastic comment, Akira.

[Nasos Kosmas]

Very nice captures Oivid, thank you!

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Nasos.
[BTW  to tweak out a little more resolution I replaced the detailed sunspot image with a new edit that was a stack of the 10% best frames with 3x drizzle turned on.]

[Øivind Tøien]

I found another opportunity yesterday for a daytime lunar IR capture, same setup as before. I stacked the 10% best of 1562 frames captured in 12-bit mode at a gain of 85 (which is unity gain in 12-bit mode) and 25ms exposure. It is in nearly the same lunar phase as the last one from one month ago (somehow good conditions seem to appear in this phase) and it is interesting how the different orientation completely changes the character of the image.

[ColinM]

I found another opportunity yesterday for a daytime lunar IR capture

Another very lovely result Øivind
I take it this approach is much kinder to your sleep patterns too!

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Colin, sure is. I wish I could learn how to spot Jupiter in daytime, but no luck so far, although Stellarium tells me it should be visible.
Here is another IR-Venus I did at the same session. Seeing went a bit crazy at times, stack of the best 5% of about 150K frames.

[Roland Vink]

I stacked the 10% best of 1562 frames

Amazing images of the moon!

How do you select the best frames, surely not manually? Maybe images with the largest file size - I'm assuming soft or blurred images have less information, so have smaller file size?

[Øivind Tøien]

Amazing images of the moon!

How do you select the best frames, surely not manually? Maybe images with the largest file size - I'm assuming soft or blurred images have less information, so have smaller file size?

Thanks Roland, I use Autostakkert that is able to stack both raw video frames (.ser files) as used here or raw files (as earlier in the thread with AW1 frames). It will automatically pick the best frames based on an initial analysis, but not sure about the exact criteria. There are some choices of different algorithms - I tend to stay with the default. Earlier in the thread I also used PIPP to center and sort iAW1 mages by quality before stacking, but it is strictly not needed as Autostakkert alone will do the job. Then the stacked file is sharpened in WaveSharp to pull out the details, and I am doing some final adjustments in CNX2, including a final sharpening step.

[knb]

Impossible to get anywhere near the results from Øivind Tøien, but I had to give it a try anyway.
Setup with 600mm + 1.7x TC.

[Øivind Tøien]

A very respectable result without stacking technique, Kjetil - seeing seems to to have been pretty good, and it is a very nice lunar phase to capture.

I wonder how far that lens (presumably 600mm f/4) could go with a couple of stacked TCs and a small pixel pitch sensor and planetary stacking technique? The diameter is 2x that of my 300mm, so perhaps resolving 2x as much detail if seeing is good at 1680mm f/11 which would be matched to the 2um sensor pitch of my ASI678MC. One would need a 4-frame mosaic though to cover the whole lunar surface, but there are also many nice isolated details to catch if the light is right. At that focal length a tracker would be almost mandatory just to be able to keep the target in view long enough.

[knb]

Thanks Øivind, and correctly assumed that it was 600mm f/4. It was a rather cold evening at dusk, the moon was bright and clear (seemingly very little atmospheric distortion).
It traveled (it can be argued what traveled in respect to what) pretty fast when looking through the viewfinder, so I tried to use an appropriately short shutter time. This effect would as you suggest be more pronounced as the focal length increases. I do not have a tracker, so there is a limit to things.
I do have both 1.4x and 1.7x TCs, so I guess I could experiment a bit further. But at 1400mm it would already be a stretch I suppose. Not sure about the quality of the combined optics either.
At 1000mm as in this case, the moon is far from filling the viewfinder (I only have FX cameras), so heavily cropping was necessary.

[ColinM]

Lovely to see this Kjetil and thank you for investigating this.

I wonder how far that lens (presumably 600mm f/4) could go with a couple of stacked TCs and a small pixel pitch sensor and planetary stacking technique?

I feel a gauntlet has been thrown down waved in this group's general direction 
I don't know who else in Norway can help you with a tracker.

But I wonder if Birna might be able to loan a camera with a small pixel pitch sensor...
Thinking about it, I'm sure she also has lenses of much greater focal length.....

I'm sure Øivind could advise/assist with the planetary stacking technique too

[Nasos Kosmas]

I welcome an 600/4 to the moon captures!
Very well done Knb excellent detail for a non stack photo
Of coarse Oivid captures are the benchmark here but its good to improve our technic

Following stack TC technique I decided to modify my nikon TC 1.4E  to be able to stack with TC 20 III and the outcome is  very positive 
Nikon 1.4x and 1.7X Tc cannot be stacked
Here is my one shot try with 500 pf plus 2x plus 1.4X = 1400mm on the crop sensor of z50
On top of that I used Topaz denoise row conversion  to clean up the file
this is an uncropped DX frame
thank you