andyhulme1966

3 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

A mask is very useful Andrew, I wouldnt be without one.  For some reason I took a screen shot of using the mask last night, must have had a premonition 😆
 

 

Last night didn’t really work out as the cloud wouldn’t go away long enough to get RGB data.

 

Hi the weather seems to be against us for the next few or so. It's such a shame ! 

I stayed up late last night and was a little miffed to see clear sky's at 12am. Cool down time for the Mak 180 is around 2 hours so I didn't bother getting it out. Its usually stored in the garage but it's in the house at the moment. 

It wasn't a total waste of time popping out as I rescued an under weight juvenile hedgehog near our front door. At under 300g he or she needs feeding up before releasing back into the garden as per RSPCA instructions . A week or so in the shed should be fine as its still mild here. 😀

I will be ordering a mask today, great image of one in action. 👍

3 hours ago, M40 said:

I would be well pleased with the first and amazed at the most recent, very nice 👍

Many thanks. That's very kind of you. 😀

4 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Your first image is not dissimilar to my last Mars image 2010.  I havent taken an image of Mars since then but I am ready to go for tonight.  I can tell you I really hope it's half as good as your recent one, as that is IMO pretty fantastic.

 

Adam

Thank you for your kind words. 

I'm so glad I posted the photos as its given me the incentive to carry on. Some times it can feel like I'm just fumbling around in the dark collecting video and processing the data ! No pun intended! 

Focusing is a problem for me as well. It seems like a bit of pot luck. Last time I tried focusing on a bright star then slewing to Mars. I've seen a Bahtinov mask for £20 so I might have a bash using one of them. What do you think ? 

I hope you get chance to get some imaging done.  Kind regards Andrew 

5 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

I would say it is nearly as sharp as you can get with the 180 Mak. I found I got a slight increase in sharpness by barlowing to about f24. Nice image though.

Chris

Can you please tell me what Barlow lens you use? 

Mine is a fairly cheap one I got some years ago from a local shop that has sadly closed now. 

I was hoping to go to the Astronomy show this year as I like meeting people/sellers face to face to get advice from, but sadly due to this ghastly virus it's been cancelled. 

The one I've got only seems to make the image worse. 

Kind regards Andrew 

6 hours ago, The Admiral said:

I can't offer any thoughts on whether it's possible to get a better image, but it's pretty good to my eye.

I'm a little confused though, there are two images, one showing apparently more detail than the other. What is the difference in processing? It would be nice to know for each how many subs you gathered, what percentage of those that you stacked, and what you used to process?

Ian

Hi sorry for the confusion. 

Yes the top image was taken some years ago 2014.

The bottom image was taken the beginning of October this year. 

I took 2 minute and 30 second, and 2 minute 45 second videos at around 109 frames per second giving me roughly 16-18 thousand frames. These were stacked in Autostalkert. I find this much better than Registax, as I seem to get better results, I then used wavelets to sharpen the final image. 

I'm still learning how to correct the colour balance in the images so the image above might look a little off. 

I'm glad I'm getting some positive feedback (thank you) as I've seen such cracking images here it can get a little disheartening when you spend ages collecting video only to process them and they look rubbish. 

I'm fairly happy with my recent results, but I would like to squeeze a little more from the equipment I've got. 

Fingers crossed for some clear sky's so I can try a couple of other things out to maximise my results. 

I've read here that I've been using the wrong colour mode. I've had my camera set to Rgb when I should have been using Raw8. Also I should have tried dropping the gain lower. I had it set to 42-44 at 109 frames per second. Low 30s might have been better which might have given me a smidgen more detail ? 

But less frames per second ? 

Just one word of advice. Don't show your Mars images to your mother in law. I did and she said it looked like a Turtle!! 

I was a little crushed 😜

Very kind of you. Thank you. 👍

8 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

If you look at other images of planets - you will often see much larger planet but not additional detail. You can get the same by simply enlarging this image - but why do that?

I prefer images that are smaller in scale but sharp - like your image.

Also, do bare in mind that Mars is rather small - it has less than 23" of angular diameter at the moment - that is a half of Jupiter in favorable position or a bit lager than Saturn without rings (only the planet itself).

This telescope will resolve up to about 0.29"/px, and this means that image needs to be only 23" / 0.29"/px = ~80px across to be able to show all there is to be shown. Your Mars has exactly this diameter - no wonder it is very sharp looking.

I have seen much bigger images here some good some bad.

At least I seem to be heading in the right direction from what you have said. I feel a lot better knowing this.

I will keep them small and not over large the images.

I have tried using a 2 x Barlow lens during imaging but this only seems to increase the fuzzy ball and not give a better image.

I will stick at it.

Many thanks Andy

The camera is the old USB 2 version, cheap as chips but I was still able to get 109 frames ps with it.

It's worth a go if you ever get the chance ! Great fun also !

Not sure if I should have dropped the gain down from 42 to sub 30s ? 🤔

I will have another crack at it soon weather permitting. 

I'll keep you posted .

Many thanks Andy

Many thanks. I feared as much, but I was hoping there might be more to come from the scope and it was due to my lack of knowledge and experience.

Thanks again for the complement.

I'm going to keep the scope anyway as it gives great views of the moon, something that always puts a grin on my face.

😀😀 

Hello every one.

After a hiatus of 4 years I'm just getting back into imaging.

The question I would like to ask is this .. 

Is the image of Mars here the best I can hope for using my Mak 180 together with the ZWO ASI 120MC, sat on top of a HEQ5 mount ?

I must admit its a lot better than the image I took 5 years ago which was pity much a reddish blob, but I'm still not happy.

I've had 3 nights of, I would say average seeing, to image Mars and I can't better my images.

All I've learnt has come from here or YouTube, as none of my friends own a telescope or have much interest in the hobby so I'm a little short of feedback.

So any feedback from my peers would be very much appreciated. 

Also cash is an issue so please don't recommend a C11 Edge as an upgrade as I would have to sell one of my kidneys to pay for it !!!

7 hours ago, Jarvo said:

Thanks. I’ll give Autostakkert a try an report back. I still think that debayering  hasn’t been mastered on these cameras. 
 

great image by the way 😀

Let's just hope the rain stops and we can get out there and get more shots while Mars is so close. 

90%  of what I've picked up had come from YouTube and here. 

There are some great videos about. 

Fingers crossed! For clear sky's! 

Thanks it does look a lot better. It's been 4 years since I last had my scope out due to relocation to Southport. 

So just trying to get back to it. 

It's a tough learning curve. 😁

Sorry I mucked up my login details above. 

Just found my old password. 

Here is a shot from a few days ago. Using the 120MC, and the Mak 180, stacked in Autostakkert and finished off in Registax. 

As I mentioned my images are exactly the same colour. I have tried the tweek the colour but I'm not having to much luck. Hopefully some one can give us both some advice. 🤞