Super-Resolution Imaging

My health is still quite lousy, overall, and has been this way since January.  I believe that Sheila and I both contracted this pandemic virus and, lately, I've been bouncing back and forth between fever and fever-free.  Sheila recovered relatively quickly but I'm struggling to recover.  That isn't much of a surprise, however, considering my primary health issues.  

Needless to say, I've had very little energy to accomplish anything of significance.  Actually, I've been doing a lot of sleeping.  On the rare occasion when I'm feeling well enough to think clearly, one of the things I have done is revisit some old lunar images I shot from our yard.  

In this case, about two years ago, I shot a series of images with the intent of stacking the images to create a super-resolution final image.  This is a post-processing technique similar to high-resolution pixel shift technology in some cameras that produces high resolution images.  It works fairly well if done correctly.  

So, a few nights ago, I was feeling well enough to see what I could accomplish with ten of these lunar images.  I shot them through my Explore Scientific ED 102mm refractor telescope using my Sony a6000 camera.  The camera is a 24 megapixel camera and by stacking these images using this super-resolution technique, I ended up with an image greater than 270 megapixels!  That is a big image!  

Here is the image in web-appropriate size...



By comparison, the average cell phone image is about 8 megapixels...  my Sony cameras are at 24 megapixels...  and the full size version of this lunar image is over 270 megapixels.  That truly is a large image.  

This is a cool technique and I'd like to experiment more on the moon as well as Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.  We'll see how the next few months pan out.

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