Mars + Syrtis Major 25th

[Jupiterholic]

Before todays deluge of images starts and inevitably knocks my thread off the page within hours here's my entry from last night (25th). Been getting some really good seeing here recently and last night there was no wind at all. Was really happy to catch Syrtis Major on the meridian. I thought the light area on the limb was clouds at first but now I think it might be Elysium.

[beamish]

A fantastic capture !!Loads of detail and nicely processed. Nice to have some cracking data to play with

[cgarry]

That is a cracking image, your seeing must have been great to get data that good.

Cheers,

Chris

[smerral]

Terrific shot! Umm I thought the light area was clouds too - is Elysium so white?

[lukebl]

Lovely detail there, and great tone and colour. I'm having real difficulty getting decent images with my new DFK. What settings did you use for your DBK (I assume that's what you used)?

[wolfgang.f]

Fantastic capture, really deserves to stay on top of the page :-)

W.

[SeedyF]

Lovely image

[twotter]

That's a belter! Best Mars of the season so far

[Space Cowboy]

Thats a very classy Mars!

[Jupiterholic]

Ah merci my friends. You've all cheered up my sleep deprived sunday.

@Lukebl: I've just loaded my Mars settings in IC capture. They are as follows:

White balance red: 29

White balance blue: 63

Saturation: 129

Hue: 165

FPS: 30

Exposure: ticked auto

Gain: varies between 690 - 750

Gamma: 49 (I've found lower than this, although the contrast looked good on screen, it led to a poorly defined circular look to the planet. To bring out the limb properly I had to push gamma up)

Course all this means nothing unless you have good seeing. Mars seems to need it more than most due to its tiny size. I'm still really inexperienced with Mars. This is only my 4th time imaging it. And last night I really had excellent seeing so got very lucky.

@smerral: not sure if Elysium is supposed to look like that. I only really know that the bright patch in this capture is definitely where that feature is on the planet. If it turns out to be clouds after all I'll be well chuffed.

[lukebl]

I think they probably are clouds. I've noticed that you see them on the limb, whatever part of the planet is showing. Presumably they are on the cooler sunrise limb, before the sun has burnt them off.

[perrin6]

Looks like you got Chryse (with clouds?) on one edge & Elysium on t'other plus the cap has another white feature next to it - cloud or just ice ??

[Jupiterholic]

I can live with capturing clouds. First time for everything! Yeah I noticed the extra bit next to the ice cap. Had thought it may just be part of the ice cap thats only visible on this side of the planet but looking at it again it could be more clouds.

[MisterT]

Lovely image. I'm sure they are clouds you have captured, I can just see them in the same places on my image from last night although not as clear as yours.

Martin

[northcanadian]

Beautiful!!!

[Virgoman]

Back to the top of the page with this one.....! A superb image of Mars, Jup packed with detail.

[Jupiterholic]

Thanks mate. I'm about due a stinker of an image next time I think.

[Black Knight]

That's a great image!