Afocal Mars!

[Ags]

I don't know why, but I decided to take an afocal pic of Mars. I knew it would be grainy and blurry, so I took twenty frames and tried stacking them in RegiStax... :-)

At least the color looks right (on my monitor anyway) and the shape is good too

I might be imagining it but I see a hint of the pole cap as a blur of whitishness.

[Ags]

I tried again - 20 afocal snaps of mars stacked in registax. I know nothing about registax, I just shut my eyes and clicked like mad... :-)

This one is much better, some clear traces of surface details and less noise. Am I onto something?

I did a lot of sharpening in Gimp, I confess.

[Earl]

If you want to use registax for stacking ideally you need around 1000 frames, and select the best

[Ags]

No way am I snapping a thousand pictures afocally!

[Atlas]

If your camera has the ability to record video, just do that for about a minute. That'll give you your 1000 frames.

[Ags]

Guys, I know this is not the 'optimum' method for planetary imaging. I just wanted a record of this Mars opposition.

I think backyard EOS allows capturing an uncompressed video stream from the live view so that is the route I will go down for Saturn. I will get a hyperion adapter to attach my dslr to my 17mm hyperion adjusted to 9mm with fine tuning rings.

But with a 4SE as scope, I do not expect miracles.