Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

What's the point of taking your own highly detailed photos of the moon? You can find much higher resolution images elsewhere. I usually only want to take a photo of the moon as part of a moonlit scene.


I love observing the moon, whether that's taking a picture with a telephoto or peeping through telescope.

There's something special about seeing the craters with your own eyes and then sharing that with friends. The framing & cropping, zoom, color of the sky are all unique to that experience.

Plus the moon is always looking slightly different each time, with different areas shadowed; fuzzy details one day are sharp the next.

And it's a skill like any other, which feels great to improve day after day.


Most people take photos of DSO's, but while you've got the gear, why not photograph the moon. It's also technically fun. Using a cooled camera, I video the moon/Jupiter at 20fps at 3000x3000. Then using software, I only take the frames where there is minimal atmospheric distortion. With the remaining frames, you stack them to get a very detailed image of the moon/planets.

Look up the other gear from ZWO the maker of the seestar.


How do you cool them? Dry ice?

Also how do the batteries hold up, or are you powering it off a cable then?


They have active Peltier coolers and you use mains power, a portable battery box, or the 12V output from your car. You also need to power a computer or laptop to capture the images.

Roboscopes like the Seestar are an all-in-one kit and have internal batteries that last about 3-4 hours (although for the moon you don't need more than a minute or so). The S50 can take uncompressed video, which you can then process as GP describes but, compared to a more powerful setup, the camera is 1920x1080 and uncooled, the framerate is limited to 30fps, and it only has a 50mm aperture.


Could you explain the stacking process or put up a link explaining it?


Whats the point of taking photos of nature, when there are much better ones out there?

Its about having a hobby. Let us all be frivolous.


You can also find much higher resolution images in the phone's generative AI "image enhancement" model.


What's the point of taking a photo of Big Ben? I can get much better photos elsewhere.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: