geoflewis

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.

Here is a series of Mars images in good seeing from 16 January 2023, captured with my C14/Baarder barlow/ASI462MC/ADC combo. Each image comprises the best 20k frames from each of three consecutive 6 min SERs, hence a total of 60k frames per image, each covering an elapsed time of between 18-20 mins. Mars waning phase, now at only 94%, is very apparent and its appaent diameter has shrunk to 12.5", but there is still a good level of detail coming through.

Thanks Mike, it was my first time out since the night of 2/3 Jan. The sky looked superb and the seeing was equally good for once. Mars is shrinking quite noticably and has an obviously gibbous phase now. Having seen some observing reports on SGL from tonight, I probably should have swapped the camera for an eyepiece or two and done some visual, but I got very cold sitting under the stars for a couple of hours at the laptop, so was keen to get indoors in front of the log burner....

I was out imaging Mars tonight, so here's a quick look at what was on view.....

Hi Kostas, I heard back from Richard McKim, Mars section director at the BAA, who was very complimentary about the map, but also stated that it is always best to have longitude zero central to facilitate historical comparisons. So not only a eureka moment for me, but actually how it should be presented....🤞

Thanks NV, I'm pleased that you like it.

Thanks and yes, WinJupos is amazing software for planetary imaging and analysis.