Posts Made By: Stefan Lammel

I was experimenting with the curves in Photoshop on this photo (taken last night) to see what I could make out of the Earthshine when I saw what looks like a ray in Mare Serenitatis that I had not seen before. The ray from Menelaus (?) can be seen in the square from centre bottom to the top but there is what looks like a ray which crosses it from the right. Is there a crater in this area which has a ray? - It looks to be coming from Dawes or Vitruvius. I checked all the photos I could find on the web of this area but none of them show a ray.

It’s a mystery to me but perhaps someone out there can explain it. I dont know if Earthshine shows certain features more prominently or whether its the severe curves adjustment in Photoshop, the uncurved original shows virtually no Earthshine. Unfortunately it was the only photo I took at this exposure (1sec, 100iso) so I have nothing to compare it to.

I was experimenting with the curves in Photoshop on this photo (taken last night) to see what I could make out of the Earthshine when I noticed what looks like a ray in Mare Serenitatis that I had not seen before. The ray from Menelaus(?) can just be seen in the square from centre bottom to the top but there is what looks like a ray which is even clearer than this crossing it from the right. Is there a crater in this area which has a ray that can only be seen under certain conditions? (It looks to be coming from Dawes or Vitruvius). I checked all the photos I could find on the web of this area but none of them show a ray.

It’s a mystery to me but perhaps someone out there can explain it. I dont know if Earthshine shows certain features more prominently or whether its the severe curves adjustment in Photoshop, the uncurved original shows virtually no Earthshine. Unfortunately it was the only photo I took at this exposure (Nikon 4500: 1sec, 100iso) so I have nothing to compare it to. Any Ideas?

- Note:
I had no problems with popups etc on the link below so the earlier problems seem to have been sorted out.
- Stefan 5/29/06

Hi all,

This new tubeless Dall-Kirkham from Lazzarotti Optics looks interesting. Judging by the superb images Paolo regularly posts it should make a superb Planetary scope.

http://www.lazzarotti-optics.com/main.html

Regards,
Stefan Lammel
http://www.slamm.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/moon/moon.htm

Hi all,

Here is a mosaic of the lunar terminator from my first session with the DMK21-AF0 on September 9th. Each frame is a stack of approx 150/1700 with just one or two alignment points. It was difficult to decide between the original size and this one which is increased by 20%...

http://tinyurl.com/h7lv3

(image below is halfsize)

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

The original South Polar triptych came about when I had the inevitable reduction in image size from the pre-registering process in Registax, there were gaps to be filled but meanwhile I liked the idea of a Lunar triptych...
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71016266/original

Two versions of the final gap filled mosaic :
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71246070/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71245699/original - large, very

Each of these images was made separately and was processed very differently as I find my way around the different techniques. The triptych by the pre-registered/2x method with a grid of around 48x 128 MAP, 200-300/5000 frames each section. The large version is a 2x enlargement of a standard 12 x 128 MAP, 900/5000 frames and the gaps in the triptych were filled with sections from this to create the smaller image.

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

Here are some more images from October 14th when I had some good seeing.

Tycho & Maginus
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71420820/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71427220/original - large (1.5x)
3 frame mosaic, 900/5000 frames each, MAP: 12x 128

shadow filled craters east of Maginus
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71429372/original
This may seem a bit pointless or too arty to some but I have
deliberately left it dark with minimal processing. It looks good to me
on my crt and... well yes, fairly pointless on the laptops harsh lcd ;-)
900/5000 frames, MAP: 12x 128

Clavius
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71589044/original
resized x2, 170/5000 frames, MAP: 45x 64 (ie. not the 2x/preregistered
method, was 48x but removed 3 after lost tracking during alignment). I
have gone for extracting as much detail as I could with this one and
the tonal quality suffers. Selected a smaller percentage of frames and
a relatively large dose of processing, using gaussian blur here and
there to cover my tracks a bit (pixelization).

10in f4.8 Newtonian, DMK 21AF04, 4x PowerMate, red filter, Registax v4,
PSE 5

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

Another mosaic from 14th October with the good seeing. I particularly like the unnamed crater lurking in the shadows to the left of Clavius beween Deluc and Zac, like the gaping maw of some primeval pirahna!

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71737678/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71743499/original - large x1.5)
3 frame mosaic, 900/5000 frames, MAP: 12x 128 (centre section 45x 64)

Guess what's next...

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

Heres all three recent mosaics stitched together. There was just one small gap that needed filling, just 1 pixel high (!) by about 15. Part of me wishes I had taken more AVIs to complete a mosaic of the whole Moon, the saner part of me is glad I didn't - its taken me ages just doing this!

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71916522/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/71926015/original - smaller version

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

Here are a few images that I've recently finished processing.

North West widefield:
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/72398572/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/72397947/original - large
7 panel mosaic of the Northwest taken in mediocre seeing on 3rd
November. 600/5000 frames
Given the less than ideal seeing I was surprised to see a barely
visible trace of the more difficult south section of the Sharp Rille,
easier to detect in the large version. A couple of other things I
noticed are the shading in Rima Mairan and the surrounding area which
seems to be quite dark and what looks like two small pits close
together on top of Mons Gruithuisen Delta, I'm not sure if these are
real or artefacts.

Sinus Iridum:
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/72397608/original
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/72397421/original - small
a crop of the widefield view, with a tad more processing.

Gauss Berosus & Hahn a month apart
http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/72029471/original
Taken on 6 November - seeing average, visibility poor, 400/5000 frames
and 6th December - seeing fairly poor, 220/2500 frames (green filter).

10in f4.8 Newtonian, DMK 21AF04, 4x PowerMate, red filter, Registax
v4, PSE 5

Happy New Year All!

Regards,
Stefan

Hi all,

I usually take ages to process AVIs but as I only managed 4 from last night before the clouds rolled in I thought I'd do this one straight away.

Last night was THE most frustrating session ever. The priority was to get some AVIs of Humboldt as the libration was ideal at its maximum for this lunation of 8° in the south east. Having taken some AVIs with the 4x Powermate I changed to the 5x for the first time in ages as the seeing looked like it might just take it. While focusing I could see some terrific detail, much better than I saw with the 4x, the seeing seemed good and I just knew this was going to make a really stunning image. Then the clouds came in and ruined everything. I can't tell you how frustrating that was!

I dont know how come the view was so good with the Jet stream overhead, maybe it was a freak local occurence. I nearly didn't bother imaging after I discovered it was there, but maybe I wont be relying on this as an indicator so much in future.

Anyway, theres always the next time and I'm fairly pleased with this one. Humboldt is a really magnificent crater and has just leapt to the top of my personal hit list. So heres the consolation image, hot off the press for once!

http://www.pbase.com/slammel/image/72534319/original

10in f4.8 Newtonian, DMK 21AF04, 4x PowerMate, green filter, Registax v4, PSE 5, 1/120s, 600/5000 frames, 12x128 MAP, x2 enlarged

Regards,
Stefan