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image/gifI created a 400 megapixel moonstrosity out of a million images. Full size/uncompressed files in comments. You'll want to zoom in on this one! [OC] (i.redd.it)

submitted by ajamesmccarthy2510

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[–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1215 points1216 points 2 (143 children)

Zoom in as far as you can!!

​

This image is actually the byproduct of a much larger project I'm working on, but since the rest of the project won't be finished until next weekend I thought I'd share the most crystal-clear image of the moon I've ever taken in the meantime. The moon in this image is around 10k pixels wide, which means each pixel is around a fifth of a mile. Little specks in this image are mile-wide mountains and boulders! (the image uploaded to reddit is only 100 megapixels- so 1 pixel= 1 mile ish. The full size version is linked below if you want to zoom even more!)

​

This image was created using a combination of shots from 2 different cameras, one to capture color, stars, and (some) earthshine, and one to capture the surface details and textures on the Moon. The shots were then stacked and pieced together for editing. I took so many shots to average out the blurring caused by atmospheric turbulence, as well as to eliminate noise captured by the camera sensor. Different atmopsheric conditions means some shots were better than others, so a lot of repitition was necessary to get the best possible image.

​

For more of this kind of thing, come find me on instagram @cosmic_background. I share more details about how I acquire my moon pictures in my stories pinned to my profile, and do live updates as I work on projects. Feel free to DM me if you ever want to chat about astronomy/astrophotography/equipment or anything else. Most of my shots are taken from my backyard in Sacramento, California.

​

Equipment:

Orion XT10

Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro

ZWO ASI224MC

Sony a7ii

​

Process:

Acquired around 500 tiles with the ZWO camera, and each tile was 2000 images (around 1,000,000 images, give or take a few thousand). I took around 2500 shots with the sony, over around 24 tiles. I also took a few hundred shots with a 300mm lens to capture some stars around the moon. All these images were stacked in autostakkert, then stitched together and adjusted in photoshop until I was happy with the composition.

​

You have my blessing to use this as a wallpaper if you like it. If you want it for any other use DM me.

​

If you want to view/download the 38MB HQ jpg, here is a link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11XFPsOOiYNYZZd8e71GTL3r2kwOKP_TZ/view?usp=sharing

​

If you want to break your computer and play with the 339MB PNG file- here you go: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9Av1WwP0ro2nCZ_qNidXn84Dg6pao33/view?usp=sharing

​

If you want a smaller (100 megapixel) image that isn't quite so hard on your mobile device, here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zE6rUEFkZ1fh4eFKSaOQ8DP-s3xyhYza/view?usp=sharing

​

Miscellaneous fun facts about this image:

  • This was shot over a period of 6 hours on Thursday night.
  • This took over a terabyte of data.
  • It took two full days before my computer finished stacking everything and I could finish assembling the composition in photoshop... (actually 2 computers were working non-stop on this)
  • The photoshop file reached a peak of 24GB while working on this, despite constantly flattening/ trimming as I went.
  • The first time I saved the master stack of images, my computer was working so hard I blew a circuit breaker in my house.. didn't even know that was possible!
  • This is actually downscaled- if I had processed everything in maximum sizes, the image would have been 40k x 40k pixels- 1.6 Gigapixels!

[–]hashtag_lives_matter 397 points398 points  (57 children)

The first time I saved the master stack of images, my computer was working so hard I blew a circuit breaker in my house.. didn't even know that was possible!

You must have a lot of appliances or something on this same breaker, because power supplies in computers can't draw enough power to trip a breaker like that. Or you have real shitty breakers.

[–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 226 points227 points  (25 children)

I do have shitty breakers. Honestly it might have been a coincidence, the timing was just crazy since there was no other reason I could think that could have caused it.

[–]doduckingday 329 points330 points  (6 children)

Not a coincidence. There are things the universe does not want revealed. You have been warned.

[–]Sour_Lemon_ 5 points6 points  (0 children)

When I saw the pic, I thought it was a gif and somehow thought the moon was waxing

[–]abqnm666 13 points14 points  (2 children)

How big is the power supply? 1500W is enough to trip a 15A breaker if the voltage happens to be on the lower side at the moment, since the current draw would increase. Assuming nothing else at all is on the same circuit (unlikely), it would take a low, but still functional 100V to trip the breaker if the PC was using the full 1500W. Most of the time you won't see 100V on a 120V circuit, but it can sometimes go as low as 90V before things start shutting off. That's what you call a brown-out. But fluctuations between 100-130V aren't uncommon, and you generally won't ever notice, unless you're really at the limit at the moment.

But not many people run 1500W PC power supplies, so if you had say what most would consider a large PSU, at 1000W, and the voltage was still at the low side at 100V, it would need another 500W somewhere on the circuit to trip the breaker.

So I'm sure it did it, but unless it's a 1500W PSU and bordering on a brown-out, it didn't do it alone. Monitors, printers, network gear, chargers, etc. But yeah, your PC was still the catalyst lol

load more comments (6 replies)

    [–]ccarr1998 10 points11 points  (11 children)

    I had a crummy power supply in my PC that at full load would trip the breaker. When I bought a nicer, higher wattage power supply to support my recent upgrades the break quit tripping. It depends on the power supply I believe.

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      [–]blacksapphire08 4 points5 points  (11 children)

      Trust me you can have a powerful enough PC to trip a breaker.

      [–]MrPilotMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      A full draw from a 1600W PSU on a 10A breaker will trip it. Add a couple monitors and a few peripherals (or two computers like OP describes) on the same circuit and you’ll trip a 15A breaker easy. No shitty breakers required.

      Source: P=IV and Ive done it.

      load more comments (5 replies)

        [–]BunxBun 82 points83 points  (6 children)

        Backup Links!

        http://ioho.ca/400Mp_moon.jpg <-- 38MB

        http://ioho.ca/400Mp_moon.png <-- 340MB

        http://ioho.ca/400Mp_moon_100Mp.jpg <-- 12MB

        [–]CStancer 41 points42 points  (0 children)

        Enhance.... Enhance... ENHANCE!!! Lol finally i can keep zooming and it never ends! Thanks for this

        [–]redwire2012 11 points12 points  (1 child)

        Clipped this into a pretty groovy 1920 x 1080 triple monitor wallpaper (5760 x 1080) for myself

        Link for anyone else that might want it: https://imgur.com/PQtFn27

        [–]gazongagizmo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

        groovy

        yes, it has many grooves, or as we also call them: impact craters.

        [–]oshunvu 11 points12 points  (0 children)

        Awesomeness pic! Sure it’s not a nighttime shot of the street I live on? Some of those potholes look familiar.

        load more comments (1 reply)

          [–]Kman1898 20 points21 points  (0 children)

          So how do we get the 1.6 gigapixel version?

          [–]Antimutt 19 points20 points  (7 children)

          Your png can losslessly compress to a 48.5Mb png.

          [–]DemIce 10 points11 points  (1 child)

          Hey, just a heads-up: you technically had a first generation loss by saving to PNG with IrfanView. Your saved PNG will be 8 bit per channel, the original PNG is 16 bit per channel. You also lost the alpha channel, but that doesn't matter for this image as there's no transparency used.

          The difference between the two, as far as web viewing goes, is absolutely negligible. But /u/ajamesmccarthy may wish to keep originals as much as possible.

          That's not to say there aren't savings to be had. Even with keeping the 16bpc, a GIMP export reduces it to 301.3MB, and a FLIF compression thereof brings it down to 142.6MB.
          If the bit depth is not important after all, then FLIF compresses the 8bpc version to 20M.

          ( FLIF is a lossless-capable image format with superior compression, but isn't widely supported; i.e. browsers wouldn't know what to do with it, and it doesn't seem any are in a hurry to add support, favoring WEBP (Google, incompatible with this image as it exceeds that format's 16383x16383 dimension limit) and HEIF/HEIC (MPEG, but championed by Apple, failed to encode with no specific error given) instead, but is fine for archival purposes. )

          [–]Antimutt 5 points6 points  (0 children)

          Thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't seen FLIF before.

          [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 8 points9 points  (4 children)

          I wish I knew how to do it... I'll make it a goal to learn

          [–]Antimutt 12 points13 points  (2 children)

          I used no install Irfanview freeware. Edit: File menu > save as.. > png > compression level 9.

          [–]zeeblecroid 3 points4 points  (0 children)

          Irfanview's wonderful if you don't care about a pretty UI and just want to get this particular thing Done Right Now.

          (Or these five thousand particular things Done Right Now in the same way.)

          [–]AkerRekker 2 points3 points  (0 children)

          GIMP also has compression options at export. Definitely IrFanview if editing features aren't needed, though

          [–]DutchmanDavid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

          I prefer PNGyu. It's an older program (last release 2013), but it does what its supposed to.

          It'll reduce the colors from 24BPP to 8BPP, though I can't see a difference on my TN monitor.

          [–]Armand9x 19 points20 points  (10 children)

          Holy shit.

          Commenting to save for later.

          I have an XT8.

          [–]AirborneRunaway 25 points26 points  (8 children)

          Reddit allows you to save posts now without having to comment to save

          load more comments (2 replies)

            [–]__xor__ 6 points7 points  (3 children)

            HOLY SHIT if you hold shift while using mouse scroll, it scrolls horizontally!!

            This changes everything

            [–]Piece_of_Cake_3763 3 points4 points  (0 children)

            Jaw drops*

            And I thought my picture of the moon was good

            [–]-Arniox- 4 points5 points  (5 children)

            Can we get a maximum sized one? I want to get the full 1.6 gigapixels

            [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 6 points7 points  (3 children)

            No, I couldn't process it like that. It used 4x the memory, and my PC practically caught on fire processing this one. I preserved the data just in case I want to try later when I get better gear.

            [–]bozleh[🍰] 8 points9 points  (2 children)

            I’m sure people would chip in to rent a high memory server in the cloud for you to process the full res!

            [–]sysadmin420 2 points3 points  (1 child)

            I have a 32 core preemptible instance on GCP just sitting :P

            [–]battlebrot 5 points6 points  (0 children)

            Not OP (nor OP's picture), but if you want one big-ass picture theres one 1,67GB TIF of a galaxy which i found to be very interesting. Needs some RAM, obviously ;) http://hubblesite.org/image/4308/news

            [–]twilightmoons 2 points3 points  (2 children)

            I was out Thursday shooting the same thing. I used a Canon T6i on a 11" SCT, barlowed. About a thousand shots at 24 mpix each, and I tried to stack them. Ran out of swap space on an empty 2TB drive. Oops.

            [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

            Damn a barlowed SCT must have given you amazing detail... But that Canon won't focus stack as well as a ZWO. You should look into one!

            [–]twilightmoons 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Nice got two already. Just smaller sensors, so it takes more images to out together.

            The stacking with raws is not bad at all, I just have not had time to finish.

            The view through the binoviewer and 19mm Panoptics was quite nice, though.

            [–]Revick 1 point2 points  (4 children)

            Make one of the far side if the data is available. I've always been amazed at how many craters the earth side of the moon has, I wondered how many and how many LARGE ones the far-side has since the moon is tidally locked, how did they get there, when. Awesome image man. Thanks.

            [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 7 points8 points  (1 child)

            I'll have to go out in space to do one of the dark side :( the LRO has a pretty thorough map though!

            [–]xander012 1 point2 points  (1 child)

            here’s the dark side

            [–]Neosilverlegend 1 point2 points  (1 child)

            Astonishing work, OP. I wasn't aware of your work. You've earned a new fan!

            [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Glad to have you!

            [–]CruSherFL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

            24gb Photoshop file? Hah nothing. Or students somehow manage to get 100gb files and ask why the computer is slow or why it takes so long to print. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

            [–]Mkez45634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Do you work for CSI?

            [–]xander012 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            That equipment is really nice man! Also holy shit, over a gigapixel?

            [–]BouncingDeadCats 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Thanks for the synopsis.

            One of these days, I’m gonna have to learn how to do this stuff. Just for shits and giggles.

            [–]PC_Deals 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            I set the full size PNG as the background for my 2017 MBP. It got to a 100c coming out of sleep and would only render 3/4th of the photo🤘👍

            [–]Kee_Lay 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Your work is awesome, thank you.

            [–]RideFastGetWeird 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            I'd love more information about your computer(s).

            [–]Narrrz 0 points1 point  (1 child)

            This was shot over a period of 6 hours

            There must be some significant change in the area of the moon that is illuminated over that kind of time span, surely?

            [–]HoodieGalore 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Those miscellaneous fun facts make it sound more like you were trying to conjure Kelly LeBrock, lol...but this pic is far more satisfying!

            [–]webtroter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Blacks are pure blacks?

            [–]phantombraider 0 points1 point  (2 children)

            Resolution and file size don't scale linearly. You could fit 400M pixels in well under 1.6GB, especially with highly compressible content like this.

            [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

            1.6 gigapixel, it wasn't a file size.

            [–]phantombraider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            Ah right, I misread. 340MB png was more like what I was expecting.

            [–]videovillain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

            I want the 40k x 40k 1.6gigapixels version!

            load more comments (11 replies)

              [–]LordNicht 211 points212 points  (24 children)

              I dont think you will ever top this picture of yours.

              Still one of my favorite images of all time

              [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 76 points77 points  (12 children)

              Yeah, hard to come up with something that is as striking without just copying it. Have to be creative! Still though, for technical execution, this new one is better. Just less "artsy".

              [–]Zenos0541 33 points34 points  (4 children)

              Ah so you’re the person I should thank for what is my current phone background, usually finding a wallpaper I like is hard, but your photo of the moon was a no brainer to me, thank you!

              [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 15 points16 points  (1 child)

              Glad you like it :)

              [–]Heinlager 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Yeah thanks OP. Its my wallpaper too

              [–]ElPolloDiabIo 6 points7 points  (1 child)

              Hey, we're wallpaper buddies then! High 5!

              Great job OP!

              [–]KarimElsayad247 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              I have it for my lock screen, because it's the one I stare at the most.

              [–]bryceguy72 11 points12 points  (4 children)

              Awesome! Is there a super high res uncompressed version of this halo moon available somewhere?

              [–]KarimElsayad247 0 points1 point  (3 children)

              It's in his original post on this same sub. Just look for it through his submissions.

              [–]bryceguy72 0 points1 point  (1 child)

              I found the original post but unfortunately the links to the very high res images have been deleted. :-(

              [–]KarimElsayad247 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              That's strange... I have no idea why that would happen.

              [–]Darkstar434 2 points3 points  (0 children)

              Wow!! Thanks for sharing that pic. I'm going to follow this Dood right now. I really want to see a pic of....Uranus! Sorry. It's very rare that I get to make that joke.

              [–]Noxium51 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Yarp, I see this continuing to be my phone background for a long time

              [–]TrustynMe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              I use that picture as my screensaver!

              [–]AssyMcFlapFlaps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Agreed. Its my phone background

              [–]DimiDrake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Agreed. Absolutely my favorite photo he’s done! It’s still my mobile lock screen.

              [–]Jayjay94 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Yeah. This is what i have been using as my wallpaper immediately when i saw it.

              [–]Leiox 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Indeed! I have it as my background, and its probably on top 3 of best backgrounds ive ever had. I frequently switch, but when i find a truly epic one, it stays for months on end.

              load more comments (1 reply)

                [–]DividedSK 202 points203 points  (18 children)

                can we see the apollo 11 landing zone in the picture? :D

                [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 150 points151 points  (16 children)

                Yeah that's in the sea of tranquility,clearly visible. Can't see details though

                [–]rancid_oil 32 points33 points  (2 children)

                How many megapixels would a picture like this require for us to recognize a lunar landing site, or a human, or say, a car? Like how much surface area is each pixel in this 400mp pic?

                [–]byerss 27 points28 points  (1 child)

                Curious Droid has a video about that.

                https://youtu.be/QkaNqud_VxU

                [–]mannypraz 11 points12 points  (0 children)

                Thanks for that, very educational. And the information was well delivered.

                For those that didn’t watch^ it explains why you won’t see moon landers and all from a telescope on earth.

                [–]trizephyr 14 points15 points  (11 children)

                Any chance you could put an arrow on a low res version?

                [–]Dixiklo9000 28 points29 points  (10 children)

                Here's a topographic detail map of the Apollo landings (marked in red):
                https://i.imgur.com/hhr3ZDk.png
                Better image but not super accurate: https://i.imgur.com/5lAHhdr.jpg

                The Apollo 11 site is roughly 24° east on the equator.

                Edit: From west to east it's Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, 11, 17.

                [–]fakeittilyoumakeit 11 points12 points  (4 children)

                Damn, I wish I wasn't red-green deficient. I don't see a single red spot. :(

                [–]Dixiklo9000 16 points17 points  (2 children)

                Sorry this took so long. Rough approximation: https://i.imgur.com/5lAHhdr.jpg

                [–]fakeittilyoumakeit 6 points7 points  (1 child)

                Wow! Thanks. I wasn't expecting you to do anything about it, just sucks I can't really see reds when contrasted with certain colors. Seriously much appreciated!

                [–]bamboozledzeppelin 1 point2 points  (3 children)

                https://i.imgur.com/ZKT6LG7.jpg

                I've corrected the Apollo 11 landing site, and added a zoomed in fragment from google maps.

                In the very top left you can see a tiny rectangle I marked with a red circle. That is the landing zone.

                [–]TehBossN1NjA 1 point2 points  (2 children)

                It made that big an impact or?

                [–]UsernameTruncated 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                It made a huge impact, in fact it may have been one small step for a man, but it was one giant leap for mankind.

                load more comments (1 reply)

                  [–]4porn0nly 73 points74 points  (7 children)

                  There is a UFO just above the surface in the upper right of the moon

                  [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 38 points39 points  (1 child)

                  Just a funky star I'm afraid

                  [–]GyROsc0peD 37 points38 points  (0 children)

                  That's just what you WANT us to think. ;)

                  [–]annairbxel23 7 points8 points  (1 child)

                  Went searching through the comments just to see if anyone else caught it. Triangular shaped too, may be one of our own!

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                    [–]NottoGoddo 40 points41 points  (4 children)

                    My phone crashed trying to load this image 😂. The people who landed on it must have guts. It's scary as hell. The moon.

                    [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 20 points21 points  (3 children)

                    It's insanely treacherous terrain. They had balls of steel.

                    [–]9ersaur 17 points18 points  (3 children)

                    Why are there so few craters on the moon's dark spots relative to the rest?

                    [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 37 points38 points  (2 children)

                    The surface of those areas is newer, as basaltic lava flowed over those areas when the moon was geologically active.

                    [–]Suvicaraya 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Why is that one spot at the sea of tranquillity a bit more blueish compared to the grey of most in this picture?

                    [–]Weldunn007 14 points15 points  (8 children)

                    Incredible work. Just ordered a print. Can’t wait to display it.

                    [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 7 points8 points  (7 children)

                    Thank you for your support!

                    [–]CJSteves 2 points3 points  (6 children)

                    Where are the prints available? I’ve been looking a link, but I’m probably just being dumb...

                    Awesome shot!

                    [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 10 points11 points  (5 children)

                    I don't link them directly because I never want to give the impression that I do this for money, because I don't. I have a link in my bio on my Instagram @cosmic_background for those interested.

                    [–]CJSteves 2 points3 points  (4 children)

                    Fantastic, thank you so much for sharing! And again, fantastic work!

                    [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

                    Thank you!

                    [–]FolayMingYoung 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                    You should do did for money I’d pay for a print like this. Also do you take pictures of other planets?

                    [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                    I do take pictures of other planets too, but I'm still working on getting them to a point where the clarity is good enough to share like this

                    [–]FolayMingYoung 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                    Okay I shall wait for the masterpiece to be finished

                    [–]Quinaurus 12 points13 points  (1 child)

                    My tablet is so shocked by the quality that it crashes every time I try to zoom in!

                    [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                    Oh no!

                    [–]TheMuslimMGTOW 55 points56 points  (10 children)

                    Your photos never fail to amaze me. Our world universe is truly amazing. Thank you for sharing this.

                    [–]aidenthegreat 36 points37 points  (9 children)

                    That’s a picture of the moon.

                    [–]Satanus1998 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                    Perhaps he’s from the moon, you don’t know.

                    load more comments (8 replies)

                      [–]Im_DeadInside 16 points17 points  (1 child)

                      Followed you on insta a while ago - this work is absolutely amazing. Congratulations!

                      [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

                      Thank you!

                      [–]NateIsFine 6 points7 points  (0 children)

                      This is one of the most amazing pictures of the moon I have seen, it is incredible when I zoom in and see all the brilliant detail.

                      [–]openwindowsonny 4 points5 points  (2 children)

                      Is the area which has sunlight the same area where lunar landings happened? Just wanted to know if we can stuff left by astronaut, by zooming in

                      [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 6 points7 points  (1 child)

                      Smallest things you can see here are mile wide boulders, the lander was 30 feet wide. Not even close to a pixel.

                      [–]openwindowsonny 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                      Thanks for the explanation!! Your photos are awesome!!! Have one of them as my wallpaper in office laptop

                      [–]caselat 5 points6 points  (0 children)

                      The details you have hidden in the dark too... Nice job!

                      https://imgur.com/a/4sZ02i0

                      [–]contessa_baronessa 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                      Oh lawrd. Taken aback by that first zoom. Like a mini warp into light speed. 😅

                      [–]notgauges 24 points25 points  (12 children)

                      If you haven't already gotten a copyright on this you should

                      [–]VenflonBandit 46 points47 points  (7 children)

                      Copyrights aren't like trademarks. They exist by default and without the need for any action.

                      They already hold copyright in the image.

                      [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 27 points28 points  (2 children)

                      🤷‍♂️ I'm not in this to make money. If I need to prove ownership if someone steals it I can.

                      [–]fkociper 18 points19 points  (1 child)

                      I totally understand where you're coming from, but you also don't want someone else making money off your hard work!

                      Your photos are amazing though. I started following your instagram last week. Extremely inspiring! Thank you for all that you do.

                      load more comments (1 reply)

                        [–]coloradoninja 6 points7 points  (0 children)

                        Absolutely incredible! Your work is truly awe inspiring. Keep it up! At the rate you're going, the next image will have enough detail to see Neil's footprints!

                        [–]DanielJStein 7 points8 points  (2 children)

                        Boy you sure weren’t kidding on your plans for an epic title lmao! Awesome job as always dude, keep it up!

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

                        Thanks! Congrats on the success of your last post. Knew it was headed for the top the moment I saw it!

                        [–]DanielJStein 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thank buddy, likewise you with this post!

                        [–]MetallicOpeth 2 points3 points  (1 child)

                        amazing photo man, I could look at this for hours. please do this again when it's a full moon!

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        I have a 225 megapixel full moon photo. I actually like these phases better since the details along the terminator are visible.

                        [–]rustiesbagel 2 points3 points  (4 children)

                        I would think we could see the left overs of missions. Like the rover and what not. Any idea if it could be in this frame.

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 6 points7 points  (2 children)

                        The smallest objects visible in this image are probably 3-4 pixels wide, and are mile-wide boulders. The LEM was the largest object left behind (descent stage) and was only about 27 feet across. My telescope is several orders of magnitude too small to see it.

                        [–]rustiesbagel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Oh well. Still great stuff.

                        [–]Suvicaraya 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Have any big telescopes done what you did in high detail?

                        [–]mr-strange 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I don't think even Hubble can see the artefacts left at the Apollo landing sites!

                        [–]jhall172 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                        What is up with that one area where it looks like someone spelled out the word "HELP" with rocks?

                        [–]NFM32 4 points5 points  (0 children)

                        Been waiting for this!! Thanks again! Looks incredible!

                        [–]astronomythrowaway12 3 points4 points  (4 children)

                        Your computer must be vastly superior to mine haha. Mine would catch fire if I tried stacking anything close to that haha!

                        Stunner

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

                        Mine was making all kinds of crazy noises. I could use a better processor (mine is 8yrs old) and an ssd

                        [–]BDPeck5 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        Hmm 8yr old processor? First gen i7 or something? I would cop that juicy i9 7900k

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Yep! Old i7

                        [–]xKYLx 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        That is awesome, love how the zoom just keeps going and going until I can see every crater in great detail. Good work

                        [–]Timberwolf-8206 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        I keep coming back to this, it’s beautiful. I wish I could take photos like this

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                        If I can do it, anyone can

                        [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (4 children)

                        Actually thought image was going to be full size image of the moon...

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

                        What do you mean?

                        [–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (2 children)

                        In the title is says Full size. I thought it was a life size image. I was being dumb.

                        [–]ChickenNuggetSmth 3 points4 points  (0 children)

                        Well it is if you have a (very, very) big monitor

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Hahahaha that's amazing. I wish!

                        [–]MrGrim115_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Is there a tall spire in the middle of the moon?

                        [–]PrincessPlastilina 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Sending this to my friend who loves photographing the moon but doesn’t have such a sophisticated equipment. This is awesome OP. I kept zooming in looking at the details. It’s pretty cool.

                        [–]Yeah_i_reddit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        My laptop is unhappy with my decision to choose the

                        If you want to break your computer and play with the 339MB PNG file

                        So hot right now

                        [–]PaulHaman 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        That's amazing. I zoomed into the Apollo 15 site, and you can totally see Hadley Rille.

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                        Yes!! Less than a mile wide and you can see it clear as day. I'm proud of it!

                        [–]fallard79 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        This is gorgeous and insanely beautiful ! Congratulations for this beautiful picture !

                        [–]Paro-Clomas 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        how much does it weigh? is there a special program to see it?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                        At least 3 pounds.

                        [–]Tr3ytyn 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        Can pictures from earth get any more visible and clear that this? Like. If we WANTED to zoom and see visible details from the Apollo landing could we?

                        [–]Chirophilologist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Assume your celestial form and ascend towards Olympus, OP! You're a god to me! Thank you for your content!

                        [–]Jspmiv 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Anyone find the flag to put the moon landing conspiracies to rest?

                        [–]iboots 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Always wanted a clear picture of the moon. Thank you very much.

                        [–]eraffaelli 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        Amazing! Now we need to take this monstrosity and give it to ESRGAN to have an "enhanced" 4x version of it just because we can :D

                        [–]saphirbleu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        The sun sees everything I do ... but the moon knows all my secrets.

                        [–]J0hnnee 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        Your camera work baffles me. And I end up with a new iPhone wallpaper every time you post something.

                        [–]Alooffoola 2 points3 points  (2 children)

                        I zoomed all the way in and couldn’t make out any detail whatsoever on the stars. What a rip off.

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 5 points6 points  (1 child)

                        I'll try harder next time 😐

                        [–]Alooffoola 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        I hope you know that was sarcasm. Thanks for the image. It’s bad ass.

                        [–]Salki1012 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Is the big file really only 339MB (not GB?) seems reasonable for such a massive photo. Might have to download it when I get home.

                        [–]handsomehotchocolate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Waiting patiently for this to download, but also excited to view so HURRY UP download speeds!

                        [–]Proper_Shiny 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I follow your Instagram and honestly you produce the most amazing photos. I’ve had your 50,000 shots of the moon as my wallpaper since you posted, this could be the next.

                        [–]elaco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Love it !! Thanks for sharing ! Imma use it as my new wallpaper

                        [–]Zenkappa 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Got an image enhancer that can bitmap?

                        [–]Paroshy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Do you happen to have a 1920x1080 version for a background? I don't trust myself to do it lol

                        [–]LARGEVANTEA69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Zoom in, that's what my mom does on every single picture I show her

                        [–]justaquad 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Wasn’t this posted a couple weeks ago or was that just someone doing very similar?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

                        That was probably my earlier shot. Similar picture, but this one has 5x the clarity on the full size image

                        [–]De_steuben 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        This took me longer to load than most gifs on reddit.

                        [–]4CC1D3N7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Well that's gonna be my new phone and pc wall paper :D

                        [–]rap7or 0 points1 point  (3 children)

                        I found something that clearly looks like it's not a natural formation. Man-made or of alien technology, reminds me of something one would see on Hoth.

                        [–]rap7or 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        Here is a screen grab of what I'm talking about. I was viewing on my cell phone. IIRC, it was upper left along the darkside line. http://imgur.com/gallery/2uctxwI

                        [–]BDPeck5 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        A crater?

                        [–]sexseverely 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        Question: what's the best way to view the full sized 339 MB image? Is there a program other than Windows Photos that makes it easy to zoom? Also people are saying it's taking a while to download but when I download it it's instantaneous. Am I doing something wrong? Beautiful shot btw!

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Some devices probably load the data differently. Sometimes it loads fast for me, sometimes slow. I use Photoshop so I can fly around with scrubby zoom, but otherwise a mobile device works good if you have a newer device with free memory.

                        [–]sexseverely 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I've been meaning to download photoshop anyways, this post will be the catalyst for me haha. Thanks!

                        [–]Vosstonmass1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I’m also committed to commenting so I can come back later

                        [–]jack-thunderstruck 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        Can I get a fullsized Poster of this somewhere? I want this to be my Wall, not just my wallpaper.

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        Check the link in my bio on my Instagram @cosmic_background. DM me if you can't find it!

                        [–]jack-thunderstruck 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thanks, I found it. Going to have to check on the customs situation. Epic Picture.

                        [–]Faydea 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        how do I actually zoom in on this? windows doesn't let me zoom in that much

                        ​

                        [–]SNOOP_LION_LOL 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        This is so amazing. If you zoom in far enough you can see Alex turner singing four out of five.

                        [–]NovaDr3amz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Amazing work!!! I want more pictures like there where we could zoom in super far Its awesome!

                        [–]rorocolcol 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Wow, very cool of you to share the uncompressed file for free

                        [–]SPYK3O 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I see you made an upgrade from the last moon picture, nice work.

                        [–]FresnoBob90000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Nice.

                        Reminds me of first time I looked at the moon with a telescope.

                        Seriously. Everyone should. It’s fucking great.

                        [–]Zimlokks 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        :monkaS: poor phone is trying so hard to load this picture, torture testing at it's finest

                        [–]Amygdaloidal_Dream 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I would love to see the Apollo landing sites superimposed on this

                        [–]JustinFaulkinTrudeau 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Are the bigger stars in the background actually nebulae?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        No just stars that got wonky when I edited them

                        [–]The_Celtic_Chemist 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        I used one of your images as the background of my "Moonshine" playlist on Spotify (all songs referencing the moon). Hope you all enjoy.

                        Edit: Also, I'm open to suggestions famous songs referencing the moon I may have missed. And before you say it, I considered "Moon River", but it's technically a song about a river.

                        [–]somdong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thank you for this. Downloading the full PNG right now.

                        [–]Nan6404 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Can someone add the gnome meme somewhere in this?

                        [–]theasthmaticant 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Zoom in, tilt slightly right. Man with a hat sitting on a chair with perhaps a ball

                        [–]needmorekarma777 0 points1 point  (4 children)

                        Are there any moon car tracks, flags, or anything else that our missions to the moon left that are visable on any of these images if you zoom in far enough?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

                        Largest objects I can see are a mile wide, so no :(

                        [–]rodymacedo 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        Will we ever get to see the flag in detail?

                        [–]zeeblecroid 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Nope - from Earth you'd need a telescope somewhat over 100 meters in diameter to pick out objects near that size, and one larger still to get detail.

                        [–]rodymacedo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Why hasn't construction started yet?

                        [–]SuperDeadlyNinjaBees 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Aw man, what a starkly beautiful place. Thank you for taking the time out to create such an amazing image that also serves as an experience. I can't put that out there enough. You've done a great service.

                        I can't wait until humans ACTUALLY go there.

                        (Just joking, and I'm not an idiot and am comfortable with the fact that people have been to the moon and that David Bowie is currently living there in a bio-dome with Prince and Carl Sagan).

                        [–]mrfeeto 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Did anyone else zoom all the way in and slowly pan so they could pretend they're orbiting?

                        [–]Blackandwhite_urbex 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thanks to you I just got the coolest phone background!

                        [–]-Arniox- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I can't wait for whatever is next weekend. Followed you to find out :P

                        [–]PigSkinPoppa 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        I always have a hard time understanding how massive those craters actually are....

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        The moon is 2100 miles wide.. think state-sized

                        [–]proudgeekdad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Awesome detail. Nice work and thanks for sharing!

                        [–]relaxlu_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        That thing on the bottom left, when zoomed all the way in, looks like an exploding star destroyer.

                        [–]mylifeisepic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Should I use a pc to zoom? I my phone it distorts. Please advise.

                        [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Nice shot of mons huygens, highest mountain on the moon.

                        [–]aleppe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        This might not mean much, but you got yourself a new follower.

                        Bold job

                        [–]fishbrine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thank you. I did want to zoom in on the moon. I saw it tonight and wished I could see it better. Wish granted!

                        [–]fuck_mass_appeal 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        How big are those craters on average? How long would it take to walk across one?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

                        The larger ones are like the size of Wyoming. Would take a while.

                        [–]zeeblecroid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        If you look at about the six o'clock positon, right near the edge of the moon and a little bit right of the terminator, you'll see a crater that has a pretty clear white peak in its center. That one's eighty-six kilometers across.

                        [–]nickybu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Stunning work as always! Got your previous 'artsy' moon shot as my phone wallpaper. Ever thought about creating videos and not just a sequence of Instagram stories on the entire process of your shots, from planning to finish?

                        The images you produce are truly fascinating and I'd love (as I'm sure others will too) to sit down and get some deep insights into this your work.

                        [–]Omoplata69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        That’s no moon, that’s a space station!

                        Dark side of the moon? Aliens 👽

                        -Ancient astronaut theorist

                        [–]Daniel272 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Dude my HDD was at 100% usage for like 30 seconds when I opened the link. Jesus this is impressive though!!

                        [–]Dmonney 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Dude... This is awesome. Is it sad that I actually started looking for a flag?

                        [–]seth11111 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Is there a meteorite at the center of every one of those craters? or do some of the meteors explode into dust upon impact?

                        [–]kabbage_with_hair 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Anyone else see the sad bear?

                        https://imgur.com/CHMpHjQ

                        [–]clawback18 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        Fantastic image. Can see a "dark rill" just below center on the terminator. Never seen that before usually it is all rill brightness for interesting linear features.

                        If your stars were sharper (rounder, better, faster), your lunar features would also be sharper.

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        The stars are the hardest part of this. They're captured by using difference filters of a blown out moon shot, and using dust and scratches on one. What's left is a mess, so I apply some filters to smooth them out. It's not ideal, but best I can do right now.

                        [–]clawback18 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I checked out the 35mb version - wow! what a great lunar image. Super amazing rock over there.

                        [–]_UserOfNames_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Downloaded the bigger file of the two, now need a new laptop as mine is in flames, but no regrets. This is fucking cool.

                        [–]Notlancealot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        That is amazing, is it possible to see landing bases? (Might need to open on desktop)

                        [–]NinjaOnANinja 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        It lags my phone. Either a really damn good pic or my phone is terrible. Guessing both.

                        Someone post this in the photoshop thread and give me the link

                        [–]Jeheh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        If you zoom in far enough can you see the old landers?

                        [–]Chedruid 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        ...when your computer doesn't have enough RAM to enlarge the pic... FeelsBadMan

                        [–]kinsonal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Don't tell me that no one else scoured this photo for an alien

                        [–]ZutroyZuuts 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        What's that cross in the little crater between serenity and tranquility?

                        [–]UtePass 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        I wonder, has anyone taken a pic of the moon and been able to see our lunar landers? Is it possible?

                        [–]whyisthesky 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Not currently possible, to get the required resolution would need a telescope many hundreds of meters across, if not bigger

                        [–]ledgeknow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Absolutely beautiful, thanks for sharing. Saved for future admiration

                        [–]RedBeard210 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Zoomed in. New wallpaper! Seriously cool dude!

                        [–]ChipDouglas09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        This is rad AF. You should be super proud of yourself, well done.

                        [–]smeegle5000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        The big file locked up my computer at school! (It runs at 2.8ghz btw)

                        [–]alihasadd25 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Sorry if you said this already but what lens did you use to do this?

                        [–]f1del1us 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I'd love more info on how you shot it with the A7ii. I have one myself and have been working on my astrophotography skills but I really need to invest in a lens for it.

                        [–]toggleme1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Why are none of the impact craters anywhere near as deep as they are wide?

                        [–]miss_maddogg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        this moon picture made me tear up....bravo

                        ​

                        [–]luvormuney29 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Wow this is truly amazing, the detail is increadable! Ty for sharing! 🔥

                        [–]Torak_wolf_renn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I just realized that moon isnt a perfect sphere and needs more subdivision.

                        [–]MBVakalis 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Can't wait for someone to post a 1000 megapixel image of the moon

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I bet I beat them to it

                        [–]Zpik3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        My work computer just froze for 5 minutes straight when I tried to zoom in, and then just displayed a black image.

                        ​

                        10/10, would zoom again.

                        [–]iTazlin 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        thx <3 new background. are these pictures edited at all to look more impressive or do you just stitch them together?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        For the lit side, very little editing. The dark side and stars take a lot of Photoshop wizardry to pull out, since they're hidden behind the glare of the moon. I go over my process in a story pinned to my Instagram you can check out @cosmic_background.

                        [–]ictp42 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        ELI5: Why are the stars all such different shapes? Can you tell which ones are galaxies or planets?

                        [–]whyisthesky 1 point2 points  (0 children)

                        The stars are different shapes due to distortion from the optics, you can see they are all smeared away from the centre. This kind of distortion is called coma

                        [–]nashdmn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        What a shame! Such a clear image and I can't find any alien bases or alien megastructures. May be they moved?

                        [–]AyeAye_Kane 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        oh shit this is cool, my laptop actually froze at first when i tried zooming in but it's fine now

                        [–]snikmorder666 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thank you for sharing this. What an amazing pic! It’ll be on my desktop at work tomorrow!!

                        [–]ned2kno 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Any chance you can make a file for dual monitors?

                        [–]thedjin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Woooow.. I was going to suggest a gaming PC flr next time but I see MrFarenheit has already provided more detailed specs. Thank you for sharing!

                        [–]mistaoononymous 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thanks, this is great, you just made me my new phone wallpaper.

                        [–]jakobqasadilla 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        gosh darn you crummy internet not letting me see the full size uncompressed hecking image

                        [–]Jgflight86 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Wow... don't try to do this on your average computer at work. Mine nearly exploded thinking about possibly zooming in. Will have to try later on something more powerful than a potato with a mouse attached.

                        [–]Blackfish69 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        No cheese confirmed, you’re going to need a nobel prize

                        [–]northernbloke 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Amazing stuff, what is the super bright object off the lower right of the moon?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        A star

                        [–]jo2k1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Absolutely amazing!

                        This one, plus the other image linked below are amazing! I'll be sure to follow you on IG to check out more pics!

                        [–]WhiteboyInJeans 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        I dont know why, but when i downloaded and opened the picture (the 339mb one) when i zoomed at max (using the photos app on windows 10) doesnt look very detailed. I feel like something is wrong because the 38mb looks exactly as blurry as the 339mb. What should i do to fix this?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        The improvement won't necessarily be in detail, but rather fidelity. Jpg compression reduces the amount of available colors, so there will be more banding in the image. The PNG will preserve the data as it was captured. However, a cheap monitor and graphics card will produce banding anyway since they can't handle images beyond 8-bit, and this is a 16-bit image.

                        [–]WhiteboyInJeans 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Thanks for letting me know. Overall, its a stunning picture!

                        [–]nocendi 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        Maybe you did, but the image you linked here is a 100 megapixel image that's been downscaled enough to be a 2MB JPG file.

                        Any chance you're willing to offer a link to the actual full res/size image?

                        (Edit: Never mind, you already did)

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Yeah stupid Reddit won't let me share the full one directly, which is probably smart since itd crash people's browsers as they scrolled past it

                        [–]nocendi 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I hope people's computers aren't so bad they can't handle 338mb files, but nonetheless, probably makes more sense to share it as a download link anyway :)

                        [–]EnragedZeus05 0 points1 point  (4 children)

                        Is there a version for a ultra wide monitor by chance? windows crops/distorts it for my monitor and looks like poo :(

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

                        Just use the fill setting and it will crop it for you... That's what I did because my monitor layout is unique.

                        [–]EnragedZeus05 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        part of the moon is cropped out then...

                        ​

                        EDIT: eh, center actually looks decent

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Nice. Yeah I was a bit more "zoomed in" on this one than last posts. I shouldn't have done that.

                        [–]grambell789 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        here's a link to a website I setup with the best moon photo I could find. Unfortunately it only works well on a windows computer with a mouse, preferabley with a scroll wheel. I need to work on the code for the android version. but, there is a link at the bottom of the page to download the full image, its 24K x 24K pixels and its quite sharp. Not sure where i got it but possibly JPL. If you know of a higher resolution version i'd like to get a copy if possible.

                        [–]Decronym 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

                        Fewer Letters More Letters
                        Isp Specific impulse (as explained by Scott Manley on YouTube)
                        JPL Jet Propulsion Lab, California
                        LEM (Apollo) Lunar Excursion Module (also Lunar Module)

                        3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 26 acronyms.
                        [Thread #3574 for this sub, first seen 18th Mar 2019, 22:51] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

                        [–]QuantumPancakeLord 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        Really cool! So I loaded the 400mp one and went star trekking...

                        Did you capture Saturn, by accident? Relative location in 400mp IMG.

                        Also, I'm assuming it is visual distortion from the atmosphere, but my inner nerd wants to think you've caught a binary star like Alpha/Proxima cen. Relative position in 400mp image

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

                        Binary star... possible but unlikely due to the way I processed the star data. Saturn- not a chance. Was nowhere near the moon when I took this. Alpha Centauri is also not visible from my location, as my Latitude is too high.

                        Most shapes in the stars are processing artifacts or optical blemishes.

                        [–]hari4698 0 points1 point  (2 children)

                        I downloaded the 339MB version of the image. I opened it with the Windows Photos app. When I zoom in, the image becomes pixelated. Is there any other application to open this image?

                        [–]ajamesmccarthy[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

                        Might just take a bit? I usually play with it in Photoshop. Try preview instead of the photo app. You could also probably just view it in your browser.

                        [–]hari4698 0 points1 point  (0 children)

                        I'll open it in Photoshop when I get back home. Amazing work by the way.

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