Frustrating Moon

[Spuff]

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but maybe you can help me try and get a decent picture of the moon! I've had a seldom used telescope for years but more recently have been trying it with a Nikon D7000. Because it's big and bright I wanted to concentrate at getting some decent snaps of the moon but it's proving surprisingly difficult and I might be missing something obvious.

If I look at the moon through the telescope with an ordinary eyepiece it is crystal clear. If I replace the eyepiece with the D7000 I cannot seem to get the same clarity with still photographs - even with mirror lockup, a variety of shutter speeds (up to 1/3200). If I then take some HD video with the same setup and take a still from the video it's fine (although only 2MP): A couple of examples below:

1. Still capture - ISO400, 1/800 sec. Some sharpening and additional brightness/contrast

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/wobblydog/11965929153/] edit_still_PST_5390 by R Stornoway, on Flickr[/URL]

2. Screen capture from HD video (1920x1080) - again a little sharpening and reduction in brightness

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/wobblydog/11965761015/] edit_screencap_moon_5412 by R Stornoway, on Flickr[/URL]

If I could get the clarity of number 2 with the resolution of 1 I'd be happy! Any thoughts?

 

[sbowler579]

I think the details on the surface of the craters is pretty dam good, prefer the first shot of the two.

 

[MWHCVT]

It looks to be like the clarity and sharpening on the second one is greater than the first so I suspect this is why your seeing the difference, if honestly got no experience of using a scope so cannot really add anything on what you could do differently it does feel to me though the video is adding more processing as stated

That said the detail looks very good it amazing to see it this close us and it looks like you've got the exposure spot on, I'm guessing in getting this close its effective to a extremely large focal length this your going to have to use a fast shutter speed just to freeze the orbit of the moon unless your using a tracking mount

 

[jakeblu]

To be honest with you i think the first shot its pretty good with lots of definition in the craters and moon surface. Not sure what you could expect better but then again I have never taken photos with my camera attached to a telescope.

Steve

 

[Spuff]

Thanks for the input guys. I suppose my frustration with the first shot boils down to it not appearing as "clear" as when I view through the eyepiece of the telescope. Also I'm trying to look at specific features which involves zooming in which is highlighting any flaws in the image. For example here's Image 1 at 80% full size and cropped:


edit_still_80pc_PST_5390 by R Stornoway, on Flickr

I'm losing a lot of detail compared to say the image on this site of approximately the same area:

http://www.lunasociety.org/atlas/sections/f3.shtml

I think, as Matt suggested, I'm still being affected by movement of the telescope and maybe there's a reason why a lot of astro images use stacked images! I've got a webcam so when the sky reappears I'll give that a bash.

 

[Pookeyhead]

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but maybe you can help me try and get a decent picture of the moon! I've had a seldom used telescope for years but more recently have been trying it with a Nikon D7000. Because it's big and bright I wanted to concentrate at getting some decent snaps of the moon but it's proving surprisingly difficult and I might be missing something obvious.

If I look at the moon through the telescope with an ordinary eyepiece it is crystal clear. If I replace the eyepiece with the D7000 I cannot seem to get the same clarity with still photographs - even with mirror lockup, a variety of shutter speeds (up to 1/3200). If I then take some HD video with the same setup and take a still from the video it's fine (although only 2MP): A couple of examples below:

1. Still capture - ISO400, 1/800 sec. Some sharpening and additional brightness/contrast

edit_still_PST_5390 by R Stornoway, on Flickr

2. Screen capture from HD video (1920x1080) - again a little sharpening and reduction in brightness

edit_screencap_moon_5412 by R Stornoway, on Flickr

If I could get the clarity of number 2 with the resolution of 1 I'd be happy! Any thoughts?

The video still will have sharpening applied by the camera.. Matt is correct there, so it appears sharper, yes, but upon inspection there's actually no more detail in it than the larger shots. It appears less sharp than when viewing because of the magnification. When you view it, you're using an eyepiece, but you'll be using the D7000 (I hope) prime focus.. meaning you remove the eyepiece and literally get the scope to focus the image on the sensor... so it's smaller... and you have to zoom in to get the same level of magnification you had while viewing with the eyepiece.

Your shots don't seem to be bad compared to mine. Viewing conditions make a massive difference too. Any air turbulence will drastically affect sharpness, as will having a warm scope. Are you letting your scope drop to ambient temp fully before shooting.

Here's one of mine on an exceptionally still, clear night when the scope had been outside for hours. It was also taken with a D7000.. which was an ideal camera for astro... My D800 is too heavy and the larger sensor is wasted with prime focus, as the image is actually the same size... just on a larger sensor, so you have to crop in more... so you're back to square one. My D600 is light enough, but I'm actually considering a little D3200 for astro. seems ideal.

It's as sharp as I could ever get with the D7000. It's a 6" newtonian scope. It's had +45 sharpening, +10 radius in Lightroom.. approximately... trusting my memory here. I would say yours are as good... possibly better, as you've clearly used less sharpening.

 

[paulk]

You get the best results using a webcam and stacking the images, I used sharp cap. That top one possibly looks like the seeing was bad that night.