Astrophotographer creates moon image from 48,000 photographs

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy specializes in photographing the moon, not just recording the satellite in detail but capturing effects such as the Red Moon. This time he photographed the first autumn moon in the northern hemisphere, joining about 48, 000 images of 16 megapixels each.

McCarthy used two telescopes and a camera to capture about 1.5 TB of images, combined later; The result was a 110 megapixel portrait of the moon, which shows in detail the satellite's cratered surface.

The camera was responsible for capturing telescopes at 15 frames per second. To capture all the images, the process lasted one hour. Then, to merge all the images, you had to align and merge the photos one by one in Photoshop. The image, in high resolution, you can check here.

Looking to the sky since childhood

McCarthy became interested in astronomy as a boy after his father introduced him to the planets through a telescope, which eventually led him to astrophotography.

His work process involves photographing stars, planets, nebulae and other celestial objects using both telescopes and cameras at different exposure times and switching between camera for astronomy and a common one. The moon, however, is your passion. Once processed, the images are worked in Photoshop in a manual process of duplicating, inverting, subtracting and editing to align and adjust photos, creating the final final portrait.

"If I had the chance, I would love to be the first professional astrophotographer to photograph the Earth from the lunar surface, " he told Colossal.

Astrophotographer creates image of the moon from 48, 000 photographs via TecMundo