geoflewis

1 minute ago, Kon said:

You should be able to rotate the label. It can be done in Gimp, even with basic editing software, Affinity should be able to do it .

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/118791-how-to-rotate-text-or-text-box-in-photo/

Thanks Kostas, I'll check it out.

Thanks Mark, I will try to annotate it, but really not sure how to go about that. In case you've not already seen it, a superb reference map can be found on Martin Lewis's (same surname, but not related) Sky Inspector website.... https://skyinspector.co.uk/mars-albedo-maps/

Just now, JeremyS said:

What a stunning result Geof! 👍🏻

Thanks Jeremy, much appreciated.

15 minutes ago, Kon said:

You should try submit it to some magazines, it's worth being published.

I no longer subscribe to any magazines, but I will upload it to Flickr and share it with the on-line group for https://www.amateurastrophotography.com/, so will see if they pick it up.

8 minutes ago, Mart29 said:

Amazing work and effort put in! Really good 👍 

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback and I'm glad that you like it.

10 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Great work Geof! You've blended the images in nicely. Very consistent detail!

Thanks Stuart, as you will appreciate it is very difficult to get consistent data from the UK, so I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

3 minutes ago, Kon said:

Fantastic map! One of the best I have seen. Your eureka moment in shifting the origin has really 'cleaned' it nicely from the image I saw earlier this afternoon. But as you said, it nicely brings the key features in front. Another task for cloudy/rainy days, are you going to annotate it?😁

I am also happy for you that you managed the last couple of sessions to finish it, I remember your frustration.

 

You should try submit it to some magazines, it's worth being published.

Thanks Kostas, yes, it was good to get the missing data for the Syrtis Major region, at the start of January, which allowed me to complete the map. I would like to annotate it, but I'm not sure how to go about that. I might see if I can do it in Affinity Photo. The annotated maps that I have seen, include some diagonal writing, but I'm not sure that I have the tool to do that.

Thanks also for the feedback on the earlier version that I shared with you privately; it gave the confidence to continue and change the longtitude origin, which has worked pretty well. I did also find another early image (the one from 31 October) that included the region east of Olympus Mons, which helped brighten the dark banded area there in my original version.

6 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Excellent work Geoff, I bet that took ages to do!! 

Thanks very much. Yes, apart from capuring and processing all the source images over the past couple of months, I think it's taken me several hours, over a couple of days to get the map completed.

It took me over 2 months to capture the data for this map, with eight source images being used from data collected from 31 October 2022, through to 3 Jan 2023. As is usual for the UK conditions, even on the clear nights that I could image, were very variable and conditons at Mars itself changed, with imaging starting when there was a dust storm in the southern regions and a strong polar hood to the north. Also some images were captured when Mars was waxing, through it's full phase at opposition on 8 Dec 2022, concluding when Mars was already showing a waning phase.

I tried a couple of versions, in the end opting for a map with the 0° longtitude in the centre, partly as I fell it presends some of the major surface details better, but mostly because the data at the 180° region being quite thin and showing a strong dark band when displayed at the image centre.

It is my first full map of Mars, so thanks for looking.

EDIT: Here's my initial attempt to annotate the map....

Superb images Kostas.

On 08/01/2023 at 14:27, Kon said:

I am still amazed that we can see clouds and changes in the poles with our moderate equipment from our gardens. Even the motion of moons across Jupiter are mesmerising, at least in my eyes.

On 08/01/2023 at 14:41, Space Cowboy said:

Terrific images Kostas! Love the processing on that Mars shot! How on earth you've got Uranus on a windy night with manual tracking I'll never know! The manual magician strikes again! 😉

I completely agree with you that it is amazing what we can see / capture with amatuer equipment from our gardens and also wholeheatredly agree with Stuart's comments - a magician at work indeed....!!

Very nice images, excellent work

I bought a ZWO UV/IR cut filter when I bought the ASI462MC, but then tried the Asronomic Type 2 L instead and stuck with that through the recent Mars apparition.

Excellent

A very nice Jupiter. I haven’t imaged it for a couple of months, as its been all about Mars since November, but I might try a late season look in the coming weeks.

That’s a really excellent Mars, well worth the wait and the extra processing that you put into it.

Very nice, well done Reggie

Excellent animation

Sorry Stuart, I missed this when you first posted it, it’s an excellent animation.

3 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Loving the animation!

Thanks Stuart, somehow it makes the still images come to life......

3 minutes ago, Kon said:

resize in batch

There you go, why didn't I think of that? One for another time maybe

Just now, Kon said:

One of the best I have seen. Still a lot of details. Thanks for putting it together. It really brings it to life and in 4 hrs you truly see the rotation.

Thanks Kostas, PIPP made it easy using the TIFFs I'd already created. Ideally I'd have liked a bigger GIF image, but other than resizing all the source images all one by one, I don't know how to do that. I couldn't see anything in PIPP to enlarge the images during processing, but I think it's still worked pretty well.

18 hours ago, Kon said:

Are you planning any animations or not enough in between images?

Here's a GIF animation created in PIPP, using best 20k TIFFs from all the SERs that I captured, regardless of quality....

The elapsed time is approximately 4 hours. It's a bit jerky, partly due to gaps in capture, but also because I had to reset the ADC a few times, then rotate the camera back to the same orientation, as best as I could guess.

16 minutes ago, Mart29 said:

Great images! I would definitely get some prints done and framed 🙃 I have Mars in my living room but having your own images will be sweet

Thanks, though I'm not sure that the quality is sufficient to enlarge to poster size, though I do have some smaller 12"x8" photo prints of Jupiter and Saturn from a few years ago, so it's a good suggestion.....🤔

20 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Very good detail on those Geof! 

Thanks Stuart, it's taken 3 months to get good detail of this view of Mars....phew...!!

1 hour ago, BGazing said:

First post updated now to include 01 Jan 2023 image.

Nice additional image