Mars March 5th final process

[Space Cowboy]

Ok, I've mauled these to death so here are 2 final images from the 5th.

First is f57 shot downsized and second is f35? image at almost actual size.

75% scale

Actual scale (almost).

1st shot taken using 5x powermate + 2x Skywatcher barlow with Auto Dob + DFK.

2nd shot using 5x powermate + 2 stacked extension tubes.

Stacked in Reg 5 (7000 frames) with Reg 6 wavelets. Reg 5 seems to produce a less defined artefact on the limb than as!2.

[Atlas]

Very nice, They came out excellent imo. The bottom one does seem a touch clearer. (Unless my eyes are messing with me again)

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks. Forgot to mention 2nd shot was taken almost 45 mins later when Mars was at a higher altitude although by this time the secondary had dewed and seeing was more unstable. My gut feeling is the lower focal length would have produced a sharper image if used on the first shot.

[Clayton]

Nice comparison Stuart

I agree that the second shot looks sharper, but on it's own it doesn't mean much. I've had plenty of consecutive shots, without even touching anything that show as much or more variation.

[Alan]

I think you have these spot on now Stuart with natural colours and sharp detail. It would appear that the same level of detail is there at F35 as at F57 and, as has been my experience, there is little value to shooting at very high F ratios unless of course the seeing is exceptional.

Good stuff

Alan

[neil phillips]

Excellent processing Stuart, Youve come such a long way in a quick time. These shots are quality. Both capture and processing. Under good seeing i belive you can get quality as good as anyone with these size optics. And with dob tracking. You really should send your images to the scope manufacturer. So they can see what someone whos good at what they do. are doing with it. Its exciting watching what your going to do next. i know you can out perfom me now. And with dob tracking, ( not forgetting i use a neq6 ) thats something, as i have years of experiance and good optics as well as a beefy mount. Others should hopefully look up to you, and be inspired. You certainly inspire me. well done

ps can i have my twenty quid sent to paypal thanks

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks fellas!

One can never tell for sure due to various seeing quirks and conditions but from viewing results from others and myself as Alan says there does not appear to be any extra detail attained by going over f50. To be fair though this can only be properly tested in very good seeing.

Thanks Neil for your generous words. £20 seems quite reasonable for the forward to my imaging biography

Sounds like a good idea to send some images to Skywatcher and judging by the stunning Saturn shot Rob has just produced he should do the same. Great to see others getting good results with these scopes.

Fitted a auto focuser to he Dob yesterday so stand by your beds! Thick cloud so far lol

[bm1980]

Nice set of images Stuart, lots of detail in both pics.

Regards

Ben

[Space Cowboy]

Cheers Ben!

[Clayton]

Fitted a auto focuser to he Dob yesterday so stand by your beds! Thick cloud so far lol

I just did the same....................Cloudy here as well

[astroman001]

Very nice, lovely colours

[Space Cowboy]

I just did the same....................Cloudy here as well

Well its gonna take some special equipment to beat that Saturn shot Rob. Had a quick go with the focusser on Venus last night though seeing was terrible. Love the non vibration but just a bit uneasy about the speed being too fast on slowest setting....maybe just need to get used to it what with now having the slew control in one hand and focus control in t'other.....may have to work netbook with my nose...pecking it like a chicken

Cheers Peter! Wish this thick cloud would clear out before Mars goes past its best.

[neil phillips]

Well its gonna take some special equipment to beat that Saturn shot Rob. Had a quick go with the focusser on Venus last night though seeing was terrible. Love the non vibration but just a bit uneasy about the speed being too fast on slowest setting....maybe just need to get used to it what with now having the slew control in one hand and focus control in t'other.....may have to work netbook with my nose...pecking it like a chicken

Cheers Peter! Wish this thick cloud would clear out before Mars goes past its best.

You might have to spend time getting the jist of it Stuart. i had a oc1 motor focus. But ive spent to many years tweaking by hand i think. i seemed to always overshoot. Eventually i gave up and went back to manual. But i may not have spent long enough getting the feel of it. John h swears by electronic focussers. And he seems to nail focus like walking the dog. So i think its just something you have to get comftable with. Making sure your speed is not too fast is a must i would have thought. I use a fine focus by hand that i continually tweak. Seems to work for me. coarse focus by hand without a fine focus, must be very hard.

Hope you nail it soon. trials and tribulations and all that

[Space Cowboy]

Cheers Neil, fingers crossed I will give it a full test tonight on Mars as the sky is clear though rather murky visibility. Yeah I wanted to "feel" the focus. I know there is a special box that can be connected from the focuser control box via usb to laptop which is supposed to give extra fine focus though did not want to spend too much cash on something I can do by hand.

[Clayton]

Mine is a little fast on the slowest setting as well I feel, But I seem to have gotten used to it (is that even a sentence??) in any case I find that the focus is fairly easy to nail on a good night even if I have to try a few times. I would rather back and forth a bit on the focuser than have the thing shaking wildly at the slightest touch

[Space Cowboy]

Yep it was great last night to have the image stay rock solid while adjusting focus. I've a feeling I need a better battery as i got a cheapo one that seems already to have become sluggish giving less of a fine adjustment.

[Paul Haese]

Very nice work Stuart. Lovely rendering.

[Space Cowboy]

Cheers Paul!