Half Moon, Halfway There

For the second attempt at astrophotography through my telescope, I shot 600 photos of the Moon in two pieces (1024x768 each), taken at 15fps using my new Orion imaging camera. When I first viewed the resulting photo streams as videos, I figured it was a failed attempt. Most of the time, the images are blurry, and air turbulence causes them to undulate and wave:

http://youtu.be/_an5BVe-Vlg?hd=1

But every once in awhile, there is a brief moment of image clarity. When I submitted the collection of photos to Registax, the software found that there are, in fact, 3 sharp frames in the lower half of the composite, and 7 sharp frames in the top half. I guess that 10 out of 600 total frames isn't bad, right? (I used Microsoft ICE to stitch the two halves together, for the whole Moon image.) Here is a full-res portion from the top half:



I figure I'm about halfway there; I'm still learning and adapting technique. For example, I think I would get a higher yield if the telescope is allowed to cool longer in the frigid Oregon "spring" air. Also, my equatorial telescope mount, although better than what I've had in the past, is not exactly high-end -- but I think maybe I can stabilize it better.

Even so, much to my surprise after viewing the blurry video, this turned out to be my best Moon image so far. And, there is much room for improvement despite having very modest equipment. If anyone cares, I'll be posting results from my continuing astrophotographic journey. :-)