geoflewis

When I used to set up and break down each session I set 3 of these rotary washing line spikes at an angle into my lawn, basically folling the line of each tripod leg.https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8269403 Other brands are available. They were set just below the lawn surface, so that I could run the mower over the top without any issues - I just need to keep them visible, so that the grass didn't overgrow them and then disappeared.

I keep telling myself that I like observing, which is all that I did until I took early retirement over 10 years ago and got into AP. Nowadays, all I seem to do is take images, with planetary work my clear favourite. I did buy myself a pair of 22x85 binos and parallelogram mount a few years ago, so that I could do some wide field observing whilst the main rig is taking DSO pictures.

Congratulations Kostas, that's brilliant and very well deserved - whatever is your main interest in this hobby, you ARE a serious imager and seriously good at it too...👏

Those are amazing from a single from of a phone camera...👏

Thanks Stuart, are you suggesting that I push a bit harder on this image? I already pushed harder than I thought I should. My observatory does have a warm room, with a little fan heater, which I sometimes use if I'm out there shooting DSOs, but I've never automated my planetary imaging. I sit next to the mount to use the HC to periodically nudge alignment, plus I don't have a motorised FW, so if doing mono RGB that's a manual change. I'm also using a manual focus controller to the EF, hence I'm sat outside under the stars in freezing conditions, which starts to become pretty unpleasant after a couple of hours at sub 0C, despite me wearing thermals and several layers on top...... 🥶🥶

Thanks Kostas, I kept going as it is an aspect of Mars that I've not imaged previously this apparition, so an opportunity to grab it whilst Mars is still at 100% phase was something that I didn't want to miss, as in this country you never know if you'll get a 2nd chance. I started imaging at about 7:50pm and got that one decent video just before 9pm. I continued until 10pm, then gave up as it was wasn't happening for me, despite that I could see pretty good details on screen each time I tweaked the focus. I'm pleased that I got that one good one though.....

Thanks BGazing. It's an aspect that I wanted to image, as I'd not seen that particular view this apparition previously, so was pleased to take advantage of the 100% illumination.

I agree with @Kon about the original being a bit dark, so this one looks better to me....

I'd be happy to meet you for a beer, or other beverage at the Garden House, Banham sometime. I've not been there since Covid kicked off, but my wife and I tried a couple of times previously and enjoyed it.

🥶

Oh, that even closer than I thought - so about 6 miles, I'm between Bunwell and Spooner Row, the other side of New Buckenham, from Banham....

I braved the freezing cold last night as I wanted to get an image of Mars with Tithonius Lacus, Noctis Lacus and Solis Lacus front and central. To me Tithonius Lacus & Noctis Lacus look like ET's pointing finger.... Conditions were very frustrating, promising better than I could muster. Seeing wasn't great, not terrible, but I couldn't get the rig to hold focus more than a couple of minutes, which I suspect was due to temperatures continuing to fall - it was -4C by the time I gave in and I was very cold. Ideally I wanted to de-rotate 3x3 min runs, but I could see that focus had deteriorated significantly, even after 2 consecutive runs. Hence, despite me spending the best part of 2 hours in increasingly freezing conditions, this image is the best 10k frames a from a single 3 min SER captured mid session. Despite me constatly checking focus, the other 18 SERs that I captured just wouldn't give me anything good enough to keep. The polar hood remains strong, Olympus Mons is just rotating into view at the 10 o'clock position and there is morning cloud over the SE limb. Thanks for looking

Lovely image

Both are excellent Luke. I've never tried to capture Mars' moons. You can't be very far from me and I really struggled with the seeing, or perhaps more accurately a rapidly changing focus position as the temperature continued to fall - it was frezing out there last night.....🥶

That a really lovely image Graham

Thanks Craig

Thanks Harvey

Shame about the earlier muck up, but that's still an excellent record of the event.. I couldn't get the end of the occultation as the Moon and Mars would have behind trees by then, so I just went back to bed.

That's brilliant Mark. I love that you had the foresight to capture yourself capturing the event. Fantastic final still images too, you really got the focus dialled in.

Don't we all.....🙄

Image sizes look fine to me, but a bit of brightening (levels or curves) might help, as I can bare make out Mars at all.

That's excellent for the conditions you had, with loads of detail on show.

Thanks Stuart

Thanks Jeremy, feeling much better now.

Do you and others stay overnight somewhere? I couldn't have come to this one, as I'm still recovering from Covid. Also trains are not easy from where I live in the sticks and I wouldn't want to drive into London.