Mars! (8th/9th April 2014) or My First Planetary Astro Photo

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi all,

As some of you are aware, my home is temporarily a hotel at LHR and I brought my 'scopes with me as I did not want them to left in storage whilst my home is having some internal and external building repair/renovation work done to it.

As the 8th April was the day of opposition of Mars, I took some photos of Mars when I arrived back at the hotel after a twelve hour shift.

The attached photo is the 'best' one of six that I had taken before the batteries in my camera ran out.

Mars - 8th/9th April 2014 - North is up & East/West are reversed.

I held my camera over the eyepiece and hoped for the best. I know there are a couple of dead pixels or hotspots to the right of the image, but I am quite pleased with the result. I think I have captured some martian surface detail.

When I do eventually do get back home, I will remove the dead pixels or hotspots with my home PC as I do not have any photo editing software on this one that I have submitted this posting.

Anyway here is the equipment list and specs:-

telescope: Celestron C6/SCT (with a TeleVue star-diagonal) on a Tele Optic Giro GR-DXll

eyepiece: TeleVue 6mm Radian c/w Baader 'Contrast-Booster' filter

camera: Olympus Camedia C2040 f1.8 @ 1/25sec ISO400

Thank you for reading and I hope you like the photo.

[JamesF]

Definitely does seem to be some detail there, small as it is

I notice your "location" is between the M4 and A329M.  Up until ten years ago or so I used to live in Sindlesham, between the green and the M4.  I recall that whole "Winnersh Triangle" area being exceptionally prone to flooding.  That's hopefully not why you're currently living in a hotel?

James