Astrophotography

Thanks Lou! Learning a lot about this camera as of late! I can't wait to play with this on the next clear night!

Bill,


Nice image of the Moon, focus and exposure are spot on! However, your assessment is correct, there are factors beyond your control (atmospheric seeing for one) that are limiting to the resolution of your image.

The good news is there are ways to address and reduce the influence of these factors on your final image.

Your Canon 6D is capable of capturing 5x live view with a 1:1 pixel ratio. This means you have access to the full resolution of your camera with a live view resolution of 1104 x 736. To take advantage of this, use the 5x zoom feature while in live view and collect a few thousand frames which can be later stacked to help eliminate the effects of seeing.

I usually use BackyardEOS to help with this. In planetary mode, frame up the Moon in the center box and then click on 5x Zoom to enlarge the Moon (if it's too big to fit in the live view field then decrease the focal length of your camera lens until it does). Next, you want to change the image count from the default value of 100 to something like 2000 and increase the loop to 3x (6000 total frames). You can set the software to encode the data into a single AVI file or to save individual JPG's. When you’re ready to press the record button on the bottom the frame, the capture rate will be displayed in the circle on the top right just before recording starts. When you're done collecting your data you may want to import it into PIPP to center the Moon before using Autostakkert to stack the data. PIPP will recognize and process AVI or JPGS.

One thing to keep in mind, this will only work with 5x on live view, if you try to record without 5x using live view function your data will be greatly degraded.

Good luck and clear skies,

-Lou

Tremendous picture, well done !

This is a very nice picture - worthy of framing and placing on the wall!!! Nicely done!

Figured I'd join the moon lovefest. Taken tonight. Processed using Canon Digital Photo Professional & Gimp.

My question is the limiting factor. I'm thinking if I used a telescope vs a telephoto, that the clarity would be resolved. This photo was taken at 6:30pm, and at that point the moon was already about 40 degrees in the sky. Either way, there's a sharpness issue that I need to discern whether it's due to a process related problem or an equipment limitation. Or something else completely. I use auto focus for the moon. This lens comes with 3 different stabilizations (I'm using the correct "1" setting for it). I'm not sure if that's imparting noise or not as the angle made it difficult to forego stabilization.

Canon 6D

400mm

F/18

1/125

500 ISO

Benro Mach 3 tripod w. Pergear Ball Mount