Green Moon when saving a TIF Format

[sandconp]

I was using Sharpcap Last Night to shoot some snapshots of the moon and I told it to output the file as Tiff images. I am using a U/IR cut filter on a ZWO Camera. I noticed when I saved the image, the moon is green. When I take a snapshot as PNG file format, the moon is normal. I am using a color camera using Raw8 for the camera setting in Sharpcap.

Is there a way in Sharpcap to make the moon color look normal? ie Color Balance setting. I know I could change the setting to 'Mono' but I want to shoot the lunar eclipse and capture the red.

[admin]

Hi,

if you are using RAW8 then the saved images (assuming you are just using the 'snapshot' button) should consist of raw data, regardless of whether you are saving to PNG, TIF or FITS. If you open those images in a typical image viewer, they will look monochrome with a fine grid pattern visible if you zoom in (the colour information is stored in this grid pattern from the different R/G/B pixels).

Almost all imaging software will load a monochrome PNG file and just display it as monochrome, so if you load one of these raw PNG files it will look like a monochrome view of the moon and look pretty much 'right' until you zoom in and see the grid pattern. Some viewing software that is astro-oriented may try to automatically debayer raw files loaded from TIF or FITS to show a proper colour version, which I suspect might be happening here - if that is the case then the colour you see would probably match what was on screen in SharpCap.

On the other hand, if the image is pretty much *pure* green then some other thing may be happening when you are loading the file to view it. Sometimes getting the wrong bayer pattern can lead to oddly coloured images, although that often gives a purple rather than green tint.

If none of that helps, it's probably worth sharing a screenshot of the effect (and if possible, the files themselves) - just seeing what is going on may help reveal the cause.

thanks,

Robin

[sandconp]

I brought the TIF file into Registax and did a RGB Align and that got rid of the green. I also tried SCNR in PixInsight and that also worked.

Not sure if that helps?

[admin]

Hi,

not really sadly - good to hear that you got the right sort of result in the end, but to analyze any further I think I would need to see the affected file.

cheers,

Robin

[sandconp]

I decided to use RAW8 in the Color Space instead of RGB and that solved the issue. I should still be able to see the red from the lunar eclipse.