Lunar

[scorpius]

Just sharing a lunar shot. When I compare this to my first picture, I think I have moved up the rungs a bit.

[Radar]

Beautiful Dave. Very smooth appearance. :thumbsupmate:

[Mick]

Yes nice work, beautiful image.:thumbsupmate:

[rogerg]

Very nice Dave. You sure have progressed, damn fast too.

[phoenix]

Hey scorpius

I agree with the others, Beautiful work, Top shot. :welldone:




Cheers Jason :pipethinker:

[Noel Carboni]

Dave, that's a top drawer moon image! Well done.

I've done a touch of editing on it in Photoshop CS3 to give you some possible ideas for enhancing your presentation a bit digitally...

- Opened your jpeg in CS3 through the Camera Raw function (yes, that's possible with the right settings). I chose control values to make it a bit darker than the version you posted, and also clipped off some of the dark background stuff. I opened it in 16 bits per channel mode.

- Ran my Local Contrast Enhancement action, which at its core uses an Unsharp Mask function with a large radius and small value, and also does a High Pass filter.

- Dodged (lightened) the center of the moon slightly. This gives it a bit more of a 3D appearance.

- Image - Adjust - Curves, and increased contrast a bit.

- A touch of Smart Sharpen to enhance very tiny details.

- Converted to 8 bits per channel and saved.

http://ccarboni.home.att.net/Moon_Dave.jpg

-Noel

[Draig]

Hi Dave & Noel,

Excellent shot of the moon Dave, I agree with everyone else you are really progressing well.

Noel thanks for the step by step instructions on Photoshop to enhance the moon photo.

Cheers Colin

[Radar]

That processing worked quite well Noel. Thanks for the tips.

[wakaleo]

Well done Dave. Noel, the steps you have outlined for enhancing the already fine image are of great benefit, and the result goes to show what can be done to make a good photo better.

I'm really looking forward to setting up my ED 80 and having a go myself. The tripod and other parts arrived just before I went to Kakadu, so I now have everything I need to set it up. I get back to Moreton T.S. from Cairns on the mail plane on Wednesday. Hope to have something to show you all soon after that.

Jim

[scorpius]

Thanks Guys for the comments and Noel for the information

I have PS9v02/CS2 which was updated recently to handle RAW files. I am still "groping" with PS**, agree its a powerful program and even with a single frame shot as this one was, it can be enhanced. Incidently the photo was taken prime focus thru a 10" newtonian using a Canon 350D XT The original shot was in Jpeg format not RAW and I was quite surprised myself at the outcome of what was nothing more than a "snapshot"

I only took up Astronomy about a year ago and still on a huge learning curve.

Dave..

** Have downloaded a Video step by step tutorial on PS which I must sit down and watch some time.