CraigT82

KIT: SW 300p on AZ-EQ6 (in AltAz mode). ASI485mc. ZWO ADC. Baader Q barlow 2.25x (working at 3.4x). Astronomik L2 filter CAPTURE & PROCESS: 18x90sec captures in FC. Best 40% stacked in AS3. Image derotation. Sharpening in Astrosurface. Finishing in Gimp. DETAILS: Image scale 0.12"pp/5200mmF/17. Planet at 36 deg. Derotated to 22:03 UTC. Seeing varied 3/5 to 4/5. Transparency 8/10. Captured from Taunton, UK Thanks for looking & Clear Skies!

That’s very nice, excellent work with the C8

Nice image looking forward to seeing the full process. Seeing was ok for me early on but deteriorated by the time GRS rolled around.

Nice work, tons of detail especially as only 8”

@neil phillips @Pete PreslandDefinitely a dust storm, as mentioned in this article it’s “continent” sized! https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9275/nasas-insight-waits-out-dust-storm/

Yes for sure, it’s huge if it is definitely a dust storm

Just seen @geoflewis post in the other thread, definitely a dust storm then and a major one at that. Let’s hope it doesn’t go global 🤞

Excellent image Neil! Definitely cloud over the north polar region. Nice view of the Tharsis Montes and the Xanthe/ Valles Marineris regions, and I think possible the shadow of Olympus Mons. Looks increasingly likely to me to be large dust storm over the Argyre region as I can’t remember it being that sandy/yellow coloured last opposition (see circled area below)

Nice one Pete

Thanks Neil I do see what you’re seeing on my phone but can’t see it on my monitor, but then it is a budget work monitor so no surprise there! I can thoroughly recommend an AZ-EQ6 if you go down that route, I’m really impressed with it handles my 300p nicely and the tracking knocks my old black EQ6 into a cocked hat. Probably not much more expensive than a decent EQ platform unless you make your own

Really nice shots!

Nice work, seeing wasn’t great here too early on, May have improved later but I’d packed up by 11.30pm. Good idea to reduce image size always makes it worth while when the seeing is poor. Better than looking at a big blurry image!

Looking good Pete, seeing here on the 2nd was abysmal, was better last night though. It is just nice to be out isnt it. I saw you replying to that C14 ad did anything come of that?!

Nice shots Neil amazing what can be done with that size of scope and no barlow. Good Mars too looks like maybe a very large dust storm over Argyre Planitia, 1 o’clock in your pic

Nice shots, the IR Saturn looks great.

Very nice Geof, you were up later than me I was fast asleep but the time the GRS hit the meridian

Nice image, think it might have been APs too close to the limb?

With a DSLR, yes… use 2” accessories if you can. 1.25” accessories will likely lead to vignetting, also the physical connection tends to be more secure with the 2” size.

After a hasty testing session of new kit the other night got out for a little while last night with the intent of actually producing an image, first one in over a year. Need to check my primary I think it got knocked about during house move and isn't sat right in the cell, stellar test image had definite astigmatism. Also couldn't get the bloomin ADC to completely correct the dispersion either no matter how I adjusted it. KIT: SW 300p on AZ-EQ6 (in AltAz mode). ASI485mc. ZWO ADC. Baader Q barlow 2.25x (working at 3.4x). Astronomik L2 filter CAPTURE & PROCESS: 10x90sec captures in FC. Best 25% stacked in AS3. Image derotation. Sharpening in Astrosurface. Finishing in Gimp. DETAILS: Image scale 0.12"pp/5200mmF/17. Planet at 36 deg. Derotated to 22:16 UTC. Seeing varied 2/5 to 3/5 at times (strong but consistent jetstream) transparency varied 4/10 to 8/10 (some scudding high cloud). Captured from Taunton, UK Thanks for looking & Clear Skies!

Old blue tube SW 300p on and nice new AZEQ6. Can’t believe how well this thing tracks in AZ mode, look how tight the RoI is around Jupiter!

The 462 is more sensitive than the 120, though if you take the pixel size difference into account probably not that much of a gap. Maybe transparency was poor for that capture?

Do the sorting/registration/stacking in AS3 rather than Pixinsight… might help a bit? Would still take a while though with the full sensor size of the 585.

Thanks Neil I shall give that a whirl and see what happens

It’s interesting I wonder if it’s something to do with the image measurement for the video derotation, do you take your image from the centre of the long video Neil or somewhere else? I tried stacking the central 1000 frames and measuring that to run the video derotation but maybe that’s not the best way.

Ah I wouldn’t have know if it did I was only out there for 20 mins, got a bunch of new kit so just wanted to check everything worked ok really, then off to bed. 2 yr old likes to start his days at the crack of dawn!