Reprocessing Lunar data from April 3rd 2023

Reprocessing Lunar data from April 3rd 2023

Excerpt from the AstroDMx Capture log.

Telescope Information

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Equipment                 = William Optics ED APO - Reducer

Focal Length              = 445.5 ( mm )

Focal Ratio               = f/5.5

Aperture                  = 81.0 ( mm )

Focal Reducer             = 0.8

Camera Information

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Camera Name               = Mars-C II

Pixel Size                = 2.9 x 2.9 ( micrometres )

Pixel Format              = RAW-8

Resolution                = 1936 x 1100

Camera Type               = Colour Camera

Colour Mode               = RGB (Debayered in Application)

Debayer Algorithm         = HQ Linear Interpolation

Bayer Pattern             = RGGB

Bit Depth                 = 8-Bit

Capture Settings

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Object Name               = Moon

Output Format             = SER (8-Bit)

Capture Mode              = Frame Limit (Frames Requested 1500)

Observing Session

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Object                    = Moon

Object RA                 = 11h 22m 11.55s( J2000 )

Object DEC                = 8° 09m 00.00s( J2000 )

Lunar Phase               = 95.0978% ( Waxing )

Lunar Position            = 198.6 Degrees ( SSW ) Altitude: 45.2 ( Decreasing | Above Horizon )

Click on an image to get a closer view

AstroDMx Capture was used to capture two overlapping, 1500-frame SER files.

The best 75% of the frames in each of the SER files were registered and stacked in Autostakkert!

The two resulting stacked images:

The two images were stitched into a 2 pane mosaic with Microsoft ICE

waveSharp was used to wavelet process the mosaic image

Image loaded before wavelet processing

The image after the wavelet sliders have been pulled a sufficient amount

The image is now sharp.

The image was further processed including reorientation in The Gimp 2.10

The final image of the Moon

Saturation and chroma-enhanced image revealing the variation in mineralogical composition of the lunar surface.

An animation of the colour enhancement process

However, it would have been possible to use SER player to partly process the two SER files for example by enhancing saturation the same amount before they were stacked.

Steve Wainwright