Tonight's moon shot with a K-3 attached to a Meade 5000 APO F7.5 refractor telescope using an adapter.




full res here

http://www.mindburner.co.uk/astroimages/images/lunar_pentax_1_JPG.jpg

[Pete_XL]

Wow!!!!!!👍👍👍
Is it a single shot or stacked?

[wahee]

Wow!!!!!!������
Is it a single shot or stacked?

hi yea I should have said. It's a single exposure. I don't like stacking such a bright object as it can usually be done in one shot. Stacking can introduce some anomalies. Good for deep space stuff though.

I had to take over 50 exposures before I found one that was right. Wind, turbulence and camera settings all added to the session. I used a remote control on the shutter to minimise shake

I should have switched off Noise Reduction but it hasn't hammered the image too much I hope

[slowpez]

Brilliant.

[wahee]

Brilliant.

thanks very much

[vievetrick]

Awesome

[mattb123]

I don't usually like shots that include only the moon and no landscape but I'll make an exception for this. Nice detail in there!

[Pete_XL]

I had to take over 50 exposures before I found one that was right. Wind, turbulence and camera settings all added to the session. I used a remote control on the shutter to minimise shake

For a single shot it's even better

Atmospheric turbulence and vibrations of any kind are really a problem at 2000 mm. I once adapted a 600 mm Sigma mirror lens on a 2x teleconverter to an Olympus OM-D (crop factor 2x) and used it's internal lossless 2x-magnification function in Full HD movie mode. That gave 4800 mm!!! for a moon panorama. I filmed the moon in HD-Mode 1920x1080. The single frames (1 Minute = 1800 frames) were mostly really bad. But I put everything into a free software called Autostakkert and I was stunned by the result.

Greetings, Pete

[wahee]

I don't usually like shots that include only the moon and no landscape but I'll make an exception for this. Nice detail in there!

Thanks a lot. I wanted to push the K3 sensor and improve on what I was doing with my old Canon 1100d. Hopefully I'll get a chance to shoot Orion and a few others soon

[wahee]

For a single shot it's even better

Atmospheric turbulence and vibrations of any kind are really a problem at 2000 mm. I once adapted a 600 mm Sigma mirror lens on a 2x teleconverter to an Olympus OM-D (crop factor 2x) and used it's internal lossless 2x-magnification function in Full HD movie mode. That gave 4800 mm!!! for a moon panorama. I filmed the moon in HD-Mode 1920x1080. The single frames (1 Minute = 1800 frames) were mostly really bad. But I put everything into a free software called Autostakkert and I was stunned by the result.

Greetings, Pete

wow 4800mm, That's something. Would love to see the panorama if you have it. I did use a barlow lens, effectively doubling the magnification but found the result was actually worse, probably due to local seeing conditions. I will check out the stacking software you mentioned. I did try Registax but my PC ground to a halt while trying to process the images. I wish the K-3 had the ISO 80 mode as this might give even better resolution. I just got a Pentax 300mm prime so will try this next time. I also have a rather nice Canon 200mm f2.8 which is great and I can bodge it to the K-3 for fully manual shots.

Attached is another moon shot from a while ago.

[Pete_XL]

wow 4800mm, That's something. Would love to see the panorama if you have it. I did use a barlow lens, effectively doubling the magnification but found the result was actually worse, probably due to local seeing conditions. I will check out the stacking software you mentioned. I did try Registax but my PC ground to a halt while trying to process the images. I wish the K-3 had the ISO 80 mode as this might give even better resolution. I just got a Pentax 300mm prime so will try this next time. I also have a rather nice Canon 200mm f2.8 which is great and I can bodge it to the K-3 for fully manual shots.

Attached is another moon shot from a while ago.

Great Image!
Here is one of the 8 single images I derived from eight clips of one minute each (ca. 1800 frames der clip, choosed best 50% by help of the software):

...and her is the pano stiched with Microsoft ICE:

It was my first and only try with that mirror lens which was really smooth and of very poor contrast. The 2x third party converter I used is a crap, must be out of the sixties. But the whole "construction" cam, TC and lens was only about 30 cm long!!!😀😀😀


The single photos you would have thrown away. But the result is not too bad. As I said, it was a test of the software and the general technique of filming instead of photographing and for this it was very OK I think.

[wahee]

that's a really nice close up. Very well done. Very sharp. The lens you used must be pretty decent, especially with regard to CA. Focus is really nailed. The stacking result is really good. I like the fact that it can 'save' a potentially ruined night of imaging. The shots on this forum are amazing and show what folk are doing with camera lenses, better than many a dedicated telescope. I'm hoping the low noise of the K-3 will be good for imaging large areas of the night sky. I have a stepdown ring for the front so that I can effectively step down my lens a bit to remove star spikes.

[Ex Finn.]

Wow, those are crispy wahee, well done and thanks for sharing.

[jpzk]

Unreal !!

I can see the US flag there !

That is quite a sight this (these) image(s).
I haven't yet seen something that close and detailed on this forum.
Superb shots!

[manishved]

Wow - very clear and sharp...great pic.....