geoflewis

I've just posted what I got. Yes, the seeing was poor. It was clear earlier on, but I'm still sick with Covid, so rather than go out for the Mars up high for the opposition, I went to bed early, all drugged up and set the alarm for 4am - basically I put all my eggs in one basket for the occultation. Whilst I'm still suffering with Covid, I'm glad I did go out for that....

I set my alarm for 4am and woke up to superb clear skies, but in the 15 mins it took me to get dressed and pen the observatory the sky was 50% cloud with Mars no longer visible in the bright cloudy halo of Mars. I had enugh to get the target on the sensor, but no chance to focus. I decided to get the DSLR+200mm lens out on the tripod and as I was just getting that ging about 5 mins before occultation I saw a clear patch heading towards the Moon, so raced back to the observatory. I was able to do a quick, nearly focus, fidled a bit with gain for balance between Moon and Mars, but couldn't do more than that as I could see the Moon racing towards Mars on the sensor. I started with 10s captures, but dropped them to 4 secs, all at 5ms (136fps for full sensor). I had intended to remove the barlow lens, but didn't have time, so these are really close in views. Of course just as the occultation started, clouds moved over the Moon so I had to ramp up the gain to get anything, then seconds after the final capture the Moon completely disappeared. They're not as clear as I'd hope to get, but they give an idea what I saw. I have a few more SERs captured with Mars further out, but I think they will be just more of the same. Images are slightly different sizes as I had to crop differently, plus I needed to give the mount a nughe as Mars was heading too far south as it approached the lunar limb.

Excellent

Fabulous work Kostas, I've been working on (well fight with) mine all day. I post them shortly......

A superb animation Nicola and the single image just before occultion is excellent too.

Good luck Peter, I look forward to seeing what you get. I've just been down to my obs to check what view I'd get and it will be touch and go with trees to the west, that are potentially in the way, even if I do risk it.....🙄

That's turned out well Peter, especially given the small aperture scope you were using. Thanks for the kind comment on my image. I am still fighting the Covid virus, that caught me last week, so I am really unsure whether I should even attempt to go out tomorrow morning for the occultation - well I know that I shouldn't, but.......🤔

Thanks. We’re struggling through a day at a time, but it’s a nasty one for sure. We’re so glad that we had the autumn booster jabs a few weeks ago, as I suspect we’d both be a lot worse otherwise. It’s not looking good for me to get up at 4am tomorrow for the Mars occultation, though I’m still going to set the alarm 🙄🤔

Thanks Rob

Thanks Kostas, this is from the same session last week on night of 1-2 Dec, but I only just got around to procesing them. I think more of the polar hood rotated into view later in the session, so it seems smaller in this view, but yes, it does appear to be shrinking.

It's superb Avani

This is an image of Mars comprising 4x6 min SERs each separately processed for best 30% in AS3!, followed by wavelets, RGB align and RGB balance in Registax, then de-rotated and stacked in WinJupos. The data was captured immediately prior to the images from 2 Dec 2022, previously posted here. The main difference is that these images were captured without including the Baader barlow lens which I added later. My initial impression was that the data without the barlow was much inferior than with, but after taking my time to carefully process the SERs, I am pleasntly surprised at the quality obtained. For those interested in seeing the invidual files before taken into WinJupos they are here.

I agree, so I always do an RGB alignment just in case, but often there is no adjustment to the settings, i.e. they all stay at ‘0’.

No, just around the planet with a bit to spare, so I'll try increasing that. There are so many variables to consider aren't there.....🤷‍♂️ EDIT: Though in truth with the ADC there's really no RGB alignment to be done - it barely makes any difference

Are you using RGB align in AS3! or Registax? I always do mine in Registax. I've also never changed the ROI box size in AS3! (didn't realsise that you could...🙄, but now see that you can )

@Space Cowboy Stuart, here is a comparison of one of the SERs at original capture ROI (300x300) and then resized ROI (448x448) in PIPP. I set the same AP size in AS3!, stacked both for best 30%, applied same histogram, wavelets, RGB align and RGB balance settings in Registax. I can't see any material difference to the edge hue, can you?

Hmmm, I don't know how to do that. I didn't run these SERs through PIPP. Let's see if I can work out how to do that....🤔 EDIT: So I think I've worked out how to increase the ROI in PIPP, so took it from 300x300 to 448x448, but boy that doesn't half increase the file size a lot - it went from 6Gb to 42GB, which is huge.....😱

That’s definitely an interested thought, thanks. Maybe I should try a more generous capture ROI….🤔

That’s an interesting question Stuart, could you amplify your thinking please? I haven’t cropped before stacking, just took the SER straight into AS3!, but I do set a pretty tight ROI in FireCapture. Why do you think that a tight crop, or ROI might give a yellow limb hue?

Thanks Kostas, unfortunately the virus got us both, we tested +ve this morning after feeling increasing unwell over the weekend. We both feel really crap currently, so I’m now not sure if I’ll be well enough to venture out in the cold on Thursday morning - the forecast is for it to be -6C to -7C and the lunar occultation of Mars will be when it’s at its coldest. Between us my wife and I had 6 separate appointments scheduled this week (medical, dental, hairdresser, etc.), which we’ve had to cancel, or reschedule. We also have our grandson and his girlfriend here and they’re both now also feeling unwell, so it’s a bit of a plague house here currently….

That's an excellent rework Kostas, a very natural result, but still with plenty of detail coming through; the 150% resized wins it for me. I really think that I need to take a look at both Image Analyser and Astro Surface as those are a couple of tools that I see being increasingly used with excellent results. I think @neil phillips tried to push me towards both of them a while back, but I'm an old git that's a bit stuck in my ways.....🙄🤣

Those have turned out very well. The WinJupos stacked image definitely wins it for me, but the single stack is also very good.

Good Jupiters there, despite the poor seeing. I prefer the IR685 image to the IR850, but both show some good detail. The colour images are pretty good too.

Nicely done

It makes no difference if lens or mirror as it’s not the optics that cause the colour fringing, it’s the atmosphere, hence the ADC’s name - atmospheric dispersion corrector.