Moon 5-28 with Orion Starshooter II

[BradH]

I took these last night. It was pretty hazing but I wanted to give it a try. I have had it for a while but the MaxIm software that came with it doesnt seem to work very good so I used Craterlet. The images are straight from the camera no processing.

Brad

[budguinn]

brad, with not processing, I'd say that's about as good as it gets.....marvelous sharpness and detail......it is usually pretty much washed out at this stage, but these have lots of detail and contrast.

[BradH]

Thanks Bud

If I remember the exposer was set to 8 with a range of 0 to 255. I think with a 1280x1024 camera and the TOA 150 I have a great combo for Lunar. I cant wait for the Moon to get overhead and a good night.

I was very happy with how much detail I got.

Brad

[neilfleming]

Very nice job, Brad. Good job with the minimal/no processing. That's you next challenge <g>.

...Neil

[BradH]

Neil

What processing would you do to the images?

Thanks
Brad

[BT Technologies]

Here is Brad's image with a little Photoshop "tweeking".

[BradH]

Thanks Brian

It really look great. What a difference Photoshop makes. What Photoshop would be the best one for me to get.

Thanks again
Brad

[BT Technologies]

Any image processing software can really bring out faint details that would have been otherwise hidden.

I use Photoshop 7.0 and really like it but I am sure that others will chime in and give you their recomendations.

I know that a lot of people have some trouble getting PS to work well as it is not the most intuitive program that is on the market.

Originally Posted by BradH

Thanks Brian

It really look great. What a difference Photoshop makes. What Photoshop would be the best one for me to get.

Thanks again
Brad

[neilfleming]

The newest is PS-CS3. You could always try to sniff out an older version, cheap, and then get the upgrade.

What I would suggest in terms of processing ideas are:
1) Color balance in Photoshop (PS)
2) Noise reduction, either in PS or a plug-in like NeatImage
3) I'd throw in a bit of a contrast curve in PS
4) Perhaps some "Local Contrast Enhancement" with Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions
5) Perhaps try some "Shadow/Hightlight" image adjustment to bring back the highlights
6) I'd play with a few sharpening approaches to see what works best:
a) Take into Registax4 to see if wavelettes processing helps
b) Try multi-layer High Pass Sharpening, at various HP settings, to see if that approach gives a better answer than a)
c) After either of the above, some "smart sharpening" in PS, followed by an "Edit/Fade Smart Sharpen" with a swap from "normal" to "lighten" mode

I know it all sounds daunting, but we all started at the beginning. I've only been at this a couple of years, myself.

...Neil

[neilfleming]

Like so:
http://www.flemingastrophotography.c.../Moon-Brad.jpg

Here is the before and after:
http://www.flemingastrophotography.c...Comparison.gif

If you want to see the actual changes in the Photoshop file, here it is:
http://www.flemingastrophotography.c.../Moon-Brad.psd

Enjoy!...Neil