Alex,
Very many thanks, I've had a look at your image in the LSC which is a delight. I can achieve results almost as good but it is more by luck than judgement and my question was aimed at improving my success rate a making my astrophotography more a science than an art. Whilst I realise that your photo was at f/20, was that at Prime Focus or using Eyepiece Projection? I presume the former but it would be interesting to know. Obviously I will need to get a copy of Registax to have a go at the stacking. Many thanks for your help.
Martin

Hi Martin,

Yes, the photos were taken at prime focus of the 20cm aperture f/20 Mak-Cass. I also have an Apo Barlow lens with built-in T-mount adapter, which gives more magnification.

Lunar images at 4000x3000 pixels are beautiful to look at, and are nice to use in presentations.

A time delay of a few seconds between exposures shouldn't be a problem for most lunar images. For example, the shadows cast across Plato during sunrise can be seen to change over periods of 15 minutes or so, but if you can take a series of images within 3 or 4 minutes they should be OK.

Registax is free to download and use, and its website has some good tutorials to get you started.

Cheers,

Alex.

Alex,
Many thanks. I've downloaded Registax. I now need to learn how to use it!
All I need now are some clear skies, never mind we can't have everything.
I am most grateful for your help.
Martin

Hi Martin,

Some skilled exponents of Registax have written detailed descriptions of how they process their images, but these can be very complicated and confusing for the beginner.

Paul Maxson has written a nice tutorial on getting started with Registax 6

www.astronomie.be/registax/previewv6paul.html

Registax 6 runs very quickly on a multi-CPU-core computer.

Good luck,

Alex.

Alex,
Many thanks. I have downloaded the Paul Maxson tutorial so now I'll get down to swotting up!
Martin