20220310 - Moon 46% Mare Nectaris / Theophilus region - 480p image with TS140/910, upscaled

What’s in the picture(s) - Moon 46% Mare Nectaris / Theophilus region

What was the experience
To round off the moon sequence I made last week with the TS94 scope, I also took some frames with the TS140. With the ASI2600 on the 910mm focal length, this gives me about 3/4 of the moon in the frame.

But, I want to get closer (without having to switch my camera-setup/imaging-train to the ASI462). I’m continuing to test out the limits of how ‘sharp’/detailed I can get my lunar images with the current equipment/setup. Similar to my image of February 9th, I aimed my scope again at the Theophilius-region. But, instead of capturing in 1080p, to get as much detail as possible, this time I switched the camera to 480p, giving me a rather low-res ‘zoomed-in’ image of the region.

But here comes the experience in lunar processing into play that I’ve gained in the recent week. Building the moon sequence has thaught me day after day to improve on my lunar processing. This time, I’ve drizzled 3x in AutoStakkert, applied the wavelets in RegiStax, Upscaled the image 2x in PixInsight and applied additional sharpening using the MultiScaleLineairTransformation.

To me, this looks like quite an improved/decent result, sharp and not too much pixelated. Some of the rims on the smaller craters seem a bit ‘blown-out’, but not overly bloating the image.

Comparing this to my ‘first’ image of February … I think I have a better chance at finding a landing spot 😎😉

How it was done
Scope: TS140 APO (FL 910mm)
Mount: CEM70G
Camera: ASI2600MM Pro
Filter: Baader Red
Photons: 20220310 21:09cet, 480p, 1ms Gain 299 2k frames, 15% stacked
Processing: AutoStakkert, RegiStax, PixInsight (Mac)

What have I learned from this
Practice makes perfect. These last months I had been focusing mainly on nebulae. But, having a run of clear nights, starting off each imaging session with the moon each night, has allowed me to gain more experience in lunar processing. There’s always that little bit of extra detail hidden in the data. It depends on how good your processing skills are, to chisel this out of the image … I think I’ve chiselled a nice piece of moon-rock this time …

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭

Follow me @astrowaut