Author Topic: Nothing to do with Apollo....  (Read 5283 times)

Offline Zakalwe

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Nothing to do with Apollo....
« on: February 15, 2016, 07:58:31 AM »
....but I thought that some of you might appreciate this.  :)

It's a 15 pane mosaic of the Moon that I captured yesterday afternoon, using a Celestron C11 and ZWO ASI 174 camera. Each pane was created by capturing 3000 frames, of which the sharpest 30% were stacked in Autostakkert!2. These were then stitched into a mosaic in Microsoft ICE. The complied image was then sharpened using a Lucy-Richardson deconvolution routine courtesy of ImPPG. Final processing (levels, a bit of extra sharpening and text) was carried out in Photoshop.

43 percent Moon




The full sized version is here, but be warned that it's a bit of a monster at 35 megapixels! It's worth zooming in though, as it came out rather nicely.
Click me
« Last Edit: February 15, 2016, 08:30:25 AM by Zakalwe »
"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " - Isaac Asimov

Offline DD Brock

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Re: Nothing to do with Apollo....
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2016, 10:43:25 AM »
That did come out nicely, well done!

Offline bknight

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Re: Nothing to do with Apollo....
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2016, 03:53:45 PM »
Certainly not for dial-up, but nice job very detailed
Truth needs no defense.  Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
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Offline raven

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Re: Nothing to do with Apollo....
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2016, 10:25:18 PM »
Completely different astronomical body, but it reminds me of the Mariner 10's stitched together images of Mercury.

Online Kiwi

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Re: Nothing to do with Apollo....
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2016, 07:15:58 AM »
Spec-bloody-tacular! That's a great photo, Zakalwe, with excellent contrast and a great view of Mare Crisium, the Messier craters and many other sights. I have to rotate it 180 degrees so it appears as we southern hemisphere folk see it, but it also does have quite a bit to do with Apollo.

To me, if Mount Marilyn is visible in any photo of the moon, it's a good photo. That feature was unofficially named after Marilyn Lovell (Jim's wife), and Armstrong and Aldrin started Eagle's powered descent to the surface just after passing its southern edge. In this photo, not only is Mount Marilyn clear, but the large crater near its northern tip is also visible.

Well to the right of Mount Marilyn (or left for northern-hemisphere Earthlings) we can see crater Maskelyne (24 km diameter), and in an arc from there, Maskelyne B, Maskelyne Y, Maskelyne X, and finally at the end of the arc, crater Armstrong (4.6 km diameter), which was officially named after Neil. With a bit of brightening, slightly-shallower craters, Collins and Aldrin, also become visible.

Plus we get distant views of the Apollo 16 and 17 landing sites.

Does anyone have any idea what sort of equipment was required to get a similarly detailed photo of the moon back in the days of silver film?
« Last Edit: February 16, 2016, 07:22:10 AM by Kiwi »
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Offline Dalhousie

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Re: Nothing to do with Apollo....
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2016, 08:37:33 PM »

Plus we get distant views of the Apollo 16 and 17 landing sites.

Also Lunas 16, 20, and 24, plus Lunokhod 2.

Quote
Does anyone have any idea what sort of equipment was required to get a similarly detailed photo of the moon back in the days of silver film?

Wild guess, a good camera and telescope?  Ok, I'll leave quietly....