Hi all,

Here's a sort of follow-up to my earlier post about my "long slow glass", but of an astronomical subject. This is a shot from my 'scope of last night's nearly full moon. Nice and clear tonight, if a bit cold!!! It's about 20F/-7C here in NJ tonight.



This shot is cropped, and had PaintShopPro's "clarify" filter, as well as a slight sharpen, and was re-sized by SmugMug while posting. I've found that the Clarify filter, which can causes "halos" around objects in a landscape shot can really make a moon shot sing.


-Chris

WOW.... Ok now I have to know, I was gonna ask in the other thread "long slow glass" but I did not. But this is such a great moon shot that i must know. How much did it all cost? everything but the camera?
The bird shots were great. but with this one I know how hard it is to get detail like this on a near full moon.
Very nice.

-gus-

[m8o]

Zowee! (I just looked @ the moon last night through my window... didn't venture out! ) I think if you were to crank the saturation on that image you'll see blues and yellows, some reds, some other colors.

[m8o]

Hope you don't mind; I could not help myself (really, I tried!). I used this fabulous shot of yours as a starting point.

I'm using an old PSP v7 here @ work, so very handicapped. I just Split to HSL, cranked Saturation up in brightness and contrast, then re-combined the image. This is what I got.


It should be noted that I did not touch Hue or Lightness before re-combining the split levels... I reduced brightness a touch after, and increased contrast even less. That yellow cast is there to begin with.

Proof Positive IMO that the Moon is indeed made [mostly] of Cheese!
(ignoring that the lens could have anything to do with the cast... )

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Last edited by m8o; 01-22-2008 at 02:06 PM.

[pentagor]

It is already night here. And the full moon is glowing:

[hinckc]

WOW.... Ok now I have to know, I was gonna ask in the other thread "long slow glass" but I did not. But this is such a great moon shot that i must know. How much did it all cost? everything but the camera?
The bird shots were great. but with this one I know how hard it is to get detail like this on a near full moon.
Very nice.
-gus-

Hi Gus,
Thanks for the kind words! There are many options for telescopes, but I purchased this one here. The guys at Highpoint are very knowledgeable about their telescopes and their showroom is close enough for me to visit and try many things out before I purchase them. No one seems to discount Televue stuff, even B&H, but they carry Televue as well. I'm also using the 2xPowermate teleconverter (~300USD) , plus a couple of adapters (2" extension tube, plus a T-ring->K-mount. And of course a stable tripod and 22lbs rated 3-way tripod head. My scope plus camera is about 10-13lbs. Fortunately, I got my TV-76 used, so I didn't pay the list price, nearly a 1/3rd off from brand new. I'm also hoping that the old adage of good glass being "forever" is true, and it'll hold some resale value if I decide to upgrade it or stop shooting like this. But the build of this scope is amazing, and it's the kind of device I can see myself enjoying for a long time.

Hope you don't mind; I could not help myself (really, I tried!). I used this fabulous shot of yours as a starting point.

I'm using an old PSP v7 here @ work, so very handicapped. I just Split to HSL, cranked Saturation up in brightness and contrast, then re-combined the image. This is what I got.
It should be noted that I did not touch Hue or Lightness before re-combining the split levels... I reduced brightness a touch after, and increased contrast even less. That yellow cast is there to begin with.

Proof Positive IMO that the Moon is indeed made [mostly] of Cheese!
(ignoring that the lens could have anything to do with the cast... )

Cool! I hadn't thought of doing anything like that... Now I've got to play. I've split to RGB before, but never HSL. I will definitely need to experiment. Any ideas where those reds or blues come from? How did you know to do this? I would never have guessed that the yellow cast was there, but it sure is obvious just by cranking the saturation. Maybe I'll try to white balance on one of the areas that don't have the red/blue tints first, then use your saturation technique. I might need to ask you some more questions about this technique described above, but you asked for it by not resisting... Maybe it's my "beautiful" New Jersey sky that's adding those yellows...

It is already night here. And the full moon is glowing:

Cool, thanks for posting it. I didn't get to see it tonight, because it was overcast here all evening.

-Chris

[m8o]

Cool! I hadn't thought of doing anything like that... Now I've got to play. I've split to RGB before, but never HSL. I will definitely need to experiment. Any ideas where those reds or blues come from? How did you know to do this? I would never have guessed that the yellow cast was there, but it sure is obvious just by cranking the saturation. Maybe I'll try to white balance on one of the areas that don't have the red/blue tints first, then use your saturation technique. I might need to ask you some more questions about this technique described above, but you asked for it by not resisting... Maybe it's my "beautiful" New Jersey sky that's adding those yellows...

I could see the blue subtly in the B&w hiding there in your exceptional capture, in the lower right hand dark gray portion of the image.

I learned of that from this thread here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-camera-accessories/14684-anyone-kn...elescopes.html which is pointing to this link in the 1st post What Color is the Moon, Really? - dslreports.com I saw other pictures from that person catching a full moon, which are even more spectacular. That may actually be in or linked-to in that thread.
edit: this one: Slide show

Based on that image there, I'm not sure if the yellow here is because of PSP v7 itself, or the lens, or the air. I actually wanted to do the same with your original @ home using Lightroom as I did here yesterday @ work, but forgot. But with Lightroom, one doesn't need to split to HSL to turn up the color saturation.

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Last edited by m8o; 01-23-2008 at 01:04 PM.

[m8o]

p.s. quick addition. Explaination of the phenomenon from APOD: 2006 February 16 - The Color of the Moon

Explanation: Earth's Moon is normally seen in subtle shades of grey or yellow. But small color differences have been greatly exaggerated to make this dramatic mosaic image of the Moon's gibbous phase. The familiar Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis) is the blue area right of center. White lines radiate from the crater Tycho at bottom left, while purplish tones mottle the crater Copernicus left of center. Though exaggerated, the different colors are recognized to correspond to real differences in the chemical makeup of the lunar surface - blue hues reveal titanium rich areas while orange and purple colors show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron. Calibrated by rock samples from the Apollo missions, similar multicolor images from spacecraft have been used to explore the Moon's global surface composition.

[hinckc]

Hi m8o,

Thanks for the links and the info. I'm pretty new to astronomy, but I sure am having fun learning!

Here's my re-work of my original RAW, based on your pointers:



I wound up doing something similar to what I described above. I first went back to the RAW, and boosted my saturation to +3 during conversion. Then I over-saturated in PSP(XII) and finally white balanced to get rid of those yellows. It took a couple tries to find a good place to white balance on to get colors similar to that amazing composite photo from the link you posted, but I think I got the best I could out of what I had.

Thanks for the ideas and the info. That's why Pentax Forums rocks, because people are willing to share the stuff they know with others!

Looking back at previous moon shots I've taken, I had seen some blues before, but had written them off as CA. Now I really know why they were there!

PS. I definately lost some surface detail in the saturation (+93, in psp HSL), compared to my "neutral" conversion, but at the re-sized (downsized) quality, it's hard to tell.

-Chris