Kon

Great image and nice details.

Excellent image and I like the natural colour saturation.

Thanks Peter. Somehow seeing has been awful but last night it was better. Yes the 200P even on manual tracking is extremely capable as long as you are patient and understand the limitations we have but with your platform you should be able to get a lot better images than me. I remember that you did not have a computer, so if you decide to go down that route you will need one. I feel that the planetary photography has recently taken me away from observing but I plan to take a break after Mars and enjoy the winter nebulas.

Thanks Stuart. I have to say again that little video you sent me is tremendously helpful!

Thanks, it was nice to get these captures. Good game last night, although refereeing was awful. Back to topic, I initially had my doubts about the sorter exposure as the signal to noise is probably worse, I had a brief chat with Neil @neil phillipsabout it a few weeks ago, but the benefit is double as yes you do freeze the bad seeing but also more frames on the stack. In your experiment did you use same amount of frames or did you go for the best % of total? Glad it verified both of us. And Neil's advice was spot on again! I am not going out tonight, my body needs a break from the cold plus football is on.

The seeing was decent last night. Again Mars was hard to focus despite the lack of jetstream and the frozen atmosphere. I think this is probably my best Mars capture this year. I did an experiment, inspired from Geof's @geoflewis post yesterday. I run my captures back to back with either 3ms or 6ms exposures (300 vs 160fps). I agree with Geof that the sorter exposure is giving better results, more details and I noticed some clouds developing in the Southern part (around 7-8 o'clock); in my case, I stacked more frames from the 3ms exposure as a result of the higher fps. I still want to try derotate some of my captures, it can wait for cloudy nights. Usual setup of 8" Dob, manual, asi462mc, 2.5x TV powermate. First one is 3ms and second at 5ms. The last two are 3ms and 5ms but resized 150%.

Fantastic single shot! Nicely processed. Great tracking from your DIY platform.

Fantastic! It brings it to life.

Indeed it seems to help with the sharpening to be pushed a bit more. You started with really nice stacks.

Were you managing higher FPS or do you think the lower exposure was 'freezing' the bad seeing? Winjupos is working very well for you. Was there significant improvement from a single stack? Assuming football is done without extra time, you will be good to go by 10 🤣. Some good games tonight and this weekend.

It seems you are well over your covid because that's a stunner! The amount of details is fantastic. Seeing must have been pretty good, despite the clouds, to get these captures. I (couldn't)/didn't want to get out last night as I had an early start at 5am this morning but the weather tonight is looking pretty good.

Very nice Stuart. Details are still coming through. Weather forecast is looking promising for tonight (although cloudy at the moment).

You could not have put it any better. You are spot on regarding the views . I am fairly new to the hobby and this has to be one of the best events I have witnessed. I am glad to have captured it.

Thanks. It was not the best conditions but it was great seeing the event.

Very nice captures and details coming through.

Very nice captures. The owl transit is excellent as well.😉

Ha ha. No worries at all. Thanks for the comment. I am catching up with all the activities as well.

Excellent presentation of the event! Lovely images.

I hope everything gets better soon as your incredible images will be missed.

I had that mad rush at the reappearance with clouds and Mars moving out of the limp rather fast. Take a well deserved break.

Before the main event this morning, we also had the opposition. In a typical british fashion, the seeing was rubbish. I think it was the same for Jupiter and Saturn. Anyhow my best effort of the opposition for the record. Olympus Mons is visible as the bright spot. 8" Dob, manual, asi462mc, 2.5x TV powermate. Original capture and resized to 150%.

Very very nice. I like your sequence of events. Mars is still showing some of the characteristic features, so a good way to capture the event. I agree the seeing was not good for the barlow last night. Even getting focus on the moon was a nightmare this morning. At least you are fighting that covid. I hope you are getting better by the day!

I am glad you managed to get out. There is always tonight if you are up for it but I am not sure it is any better. I am going to give it a miss. Going to check your post now.

Thanks. Looking forward to them. Absolutely awful conditions last night. Despite the hard frost the seeing did not improve. I could hardly get any focus on the moon. I got some videos of the opposition that I will share soon but it wasn't easy.

Great captures Nik. Actually, if you zoom in, Mars is showing some of its features. Yes weather did not play ball this morning but at least we were not clouded out of the event as its typical in UK fashion.