View Full Version : Mars 31/10/07
beren
October 31st, 2007, 12:44 PM
Set the alarm for an early rise today to have a go at imaging Mars and maybe catch a glimpse of Comet Holmes. Unfortunately my view was blocked to sight the comet but did get to have my first run at Mars for the season. Seeing was mediocre and at high mag I didn't get anything to flash, although with the Mars image attached Syrtis major/hellas and the polar cap can be made out. I tried some lunar runs as well and combined the shots into a mosaic, first time I tried that.
Cheers
Radar
October 31st, 2007, 05:05 PM
Awesome shot of Mars mate. Well done. How many subs? What camera did you use for this?
Ray
beren
October 31st, 2007, 05:40 PM
Thanks Ray, alas with Mars at its current latitude and with average seeing the trusty toucam is going to struggle it would be nice to have one of the new generation cameras. I did the usal routine captured through K3ccdtools kept the histogram around 210-220 with gain and brightness to suit, the pic attached came from a 130sec AVI, processed through Virtualdub/PPCentre/Registax 4/astraimage and PSCS2.
hpcoolahan
October 31st, 2007, 06:27 PM
Great shots mate, but Radar asked my questions , and you answered them ...so...well ...ummm.......Great work!!:Chessy_Smile:
Clear skies and keep it up.
Patrick
beren
October 31st, 2007, 06:44 PM
:thumbsupmate: Thanks mate......
Hmmm maybe should have tidied up the lunar shot with cleaner cut borders, have attached just two images combined......I don't mind the wider view using single hi res shots in a Mosaic, would be good doing a terminator sequence :hmm:
Tenacious Del
November 3rd, 2007, 03:22 PM
mars is a very cool looking shot mate and you got real close to the moon as well. what sized telescope are you using?
ta
Del
beren
November 3rd, 2007, 04:13 PM
Thanks mate, used the Celestron C9.25 SCT {235mm aperture} with a 3x barlow for mars and straight through for the lunar shots. Mars isn't going to be easy for us down under this season, currently the planets disk is around 12 arc-seconds and is favoured for northern hemisphere observers with its declination. At opposition near Christmas it will reach 16 arc seconds {in 03 and 05 it was over 20 arc seconds at opposition}.