My first crack at a Mars blur!

[matt_man21]

Hello Gentle folk,

After the rain and clouds parted earlier revealing a tempting sky I decided to brave muddy knees and get the scope out to have a crack at imaging mars for the first time... The seeing was appalling but the transparency was rather good (I like the rain sometimes) so i bit the bullet and fired up the laptop and used my autoguider (my sole camera since my mate that used to lend me his EOS 500D moved back to scotland. No more deep sky for me!! )

I started taking video but at F/20(ish) the dam planet was dancing about like nobody's business jumping 20-30 pixels between some frames!! However, I thought it best to use the time to practice for those rare occasions of excellent seeing. The first video was cut short by the cat deciding the laptop keyboard would be an excellent place to settle for the night! (i swear cats have some sort of thermal imaging system)

So, cat removed, I took a few 60 second videos of mars and stacked them in the garden. To my surprise I was able to see hints of a polar cap! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!

That's the first time I have seen what I’m convinced is a polar cap in my life! I had one those ‘Now that's the reason I love astronomy!’ Moments. Standing on my mountain of victory (a mere mole hill compared to some of the Pros on here), I quickly looked at stellarium to confirm what I was seeing on my laptop screen, 30 seconds later I threw together an image and an explanation then here I am writing this!

It may be a blur but it's my Blur!

[RogerTheDodger]

Good capture, I'm looking forward to having a go at Mars sometime. I managed had a quick observe about a week ago and it's a small target...

[gdheib0430]

Better blur than I cen get to right about now I like it keep up the fun times I love the "it may be a blur but it's my blur" comment that is priceless.

[Clayton]

Good going Matt