geoflewis

Thanks everyone, it's the first time I dedicated such a long period to a single target, so it was good to compile a fairly complete record of this apparition. With Mars riding so high from the UK this apparition, I felt that it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Thanks Craig, yes I posted a Mars map a couple of months ago.... Yes, there had been a major dust storm prior to me starting my series, but I did catch the last knockings of it.

Here is a montage of some of the images that I captured during the 2022/23 apparition of Mars. The images have been sized to accurately display their relative apparent size and phase. I was a bit late starting on 18 Oct 2022, with the last image centre right captured 23 Feb 2023. The centre image was captured when Mars was close to maximum apparent diameter of 17.2 arcsecs, whereas by 23 Feb 2023, it was half that size and looks even smaller due to it's shrinking phase. There are 2 versions, the 2nd being annotated with the dates of each capture. Thanks for looking.

Some lovely aurora pics here. I didn’t check on 26th, but popped out locally (near Tacolneston Mast) and captured this weak aurora at around 10pm. 10s handheld exposure with iPhone 13.

Lovely capture Stu, unfortunately I'm totally clouded out here....

Sorry for being so late to this one - really good details there and an excellent annimation.

Well done, I too am finding Mars a difficult subject to image now at <9" apparent diameter....

Very nice result Kostas. I've done very little Venus imaging, never had the gear for it, plus it's difficult to access from my observatory early evening due to neighbour's trees, though one of then fell down a couple of years ago so things might be btter this apparion. I don't have any UV filter, so that is on my want list, but whether I get it is another matter.....

I've continued to check in on Mars, which is now getting quite small. At just 8.8" it is now only slightly more than half the apparent diamter that it was some two and a half months ago at opposition, but some of the larger details are still coming through.

Superb individual images and mosaic Dan

I've used a push style golf bag trolley to transport my C14, using the trolley straps, plus some extra bungee straps to hold the OTA it in place. The broad wheels handle rough ground well if moving over a field, etc. and pushing is easier than pulling and easier to keep an eye on the load. I still needed to take it easy, i.e. slow pace, but it's doable.....

Ok, now I understand what you mean. I think I'd use that slot for something more useful.

Not sure what you mean by 'keep things parfocal', i.e. what is a clear filter parfocal with? Personally I wouldn't use the camera without any filter though, at least I can't think of any time when I would do that.

The Astronomic L2 is an IR/UV cut filter, essentially all luminace filers cut IR+UV, that's what they do. Check the specs on the Astronomic website - L2 is the general purpose one of the 3 versions, L3 the most agressive cut filter.... https://www.astronomik.com/en/uv-und-ir-block-filter/luminance-filter-l-1-l-2-l-3.html FWIW I use the old Astonomik Type 2 Lum as my UV/IR cut for planetary imaging.

Do these links to PHD2 documentation about calibration help...? https://openphdguiding.org/man/Basic_use.htm#Automatic_Calibration https://openphdguiding.org/man/Tools.htm#Calibration_Details

These are lovely images Ella.

There's always a trade off Dave, but I prefer the brighter galaxies in your 2nd version. I will be interested to see what others think.

That's excellent Dave.

I imaged this a few nights ago on 23 Jan 2023 with my Canon 600D + manual Nikkor 180mm ED F2.8 lens riding unguided on my SA Mount. It is a stack of 15 x 2 mins, double stacked for comet and pinpoint stars. I didn't capture the ion tail, but the ante tail is well seen. M102 also put in an appearance to the right of the tail. Last night was cloudy with rain all evening, then just before I went to bed around midnight I popped out and the sky had cleared, so I grabbed a couple of pairs of binos, to take a look at the comet. It has definitrely brightened over the past few days, being an easy target in both the 8x40s and 15x70s, with a hint of the broad dust tail showing in the latter. Once I got the location I even felt that I could catch a glimpse of it with naked eye averted vision, but it was close to the 4.6 mag star RR Uma (as seen in @Nigella Bryant lovely image), so I may have been fooled by that. I will keep checking over the coming nights to see if I can confirm whether it has become naked eye visual.

Excellent

Nice work Stuart. I've tried a couple of times recently, but the seeing has been dreadful on the few occasions its been clear, so unfortunately nothing to share.

Citizen scientists report global rapid reductions in the visibility of stars from 2011 to 2022 | Science Here's a more detailed report in Science mag, which I think, amongst other things, shows that LEDs, however well directed, aren't going to be the solution to LP that some anticipated.....

Here's what I got last night. None of the Jup SERs were usable and this was the best of the three Mars SERs that I captured - the others suffered from the corrector lens icing over. It's a very similar view to the 1st image from the previous night posted above, so probably not worth working up into a final image and giving it is own post.

Thanks both, I was out with Mars again tonight, also tried Jupiter earlier on, but the seeing wasn't as good and the corrector plate on my C14 iced over, so I only grabbed a few SERs. I will process them later / tomorrow to see if I got anything worth sharing.

Hi Stu and others that were observing Mars last night. I have just posted my fully processed series of three images from last night in case you want to take a look..... There was definitely cloud on the western limb over Aurorae Sinus, but they either disipated or rotated out of view as the evening progressed. A similar story with clouds at the south pole too, though they seemed to hang around longer. I'm not seeing any evidence of a bright spot there, through if it was only seen fleetingly, it will likely be lost when stacking 60k frames.