Stargazer33 Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Just a quick process of one of the 26, 3 minute videos I took between 22:00 & 00:00 UT on 8th April.It should have been more only I set Sharpcap running and went into the conservatory to wait and watch through the window. Next thing I know it's 02:30 UT and the laptop has turned itself off and the mount is no longer tracking Mars!!!!Anyway, this is the first 3 minute video: processed in PIPP, stacked in AS2! and wavelets done in RS6.Equipment: Celestron C8 XLT, Revelation 2.5x barlow, Philips SPC900NC with Baader neodymium IR cut filter, CGEM mount.Not a patch on other images I have seen on the forum but my best Mars to date and I have a lot more videos to process yet.I was hoping to get enough to do a short rotation video, but I'm not sure 2 hours will be enough. Teach me to fall asleep! :coffee: Just as a last thought; would it be better to leave the IR cut filter off in future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 There's plenty of detail there. Well done. How are you focusing at the moment? I wonder if working on that might get even better images.James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si@nite Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Nice effort i agree with James I think theres more to come out of that image! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sologuitarist61 Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Good start image - more to come I feel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stargazer33 Posted April 12, 2014 Author Share Posted April 12, 2014 Thanks guys!James:I am using my home made arduino electric focus controller on my Revelation Superfocus 2-inch SCT Rack n Pinion Focuser. Set-up didn't go as planned and so polar alignment wasn't good. I was going to focus on a nearby star to and try to get the FWHM figure nice and low, but It took me ages to get Mars onto the camera chip and I didn't want to go through that again after slewing to the star!So patience and taking more time over setting up the mount next time and making sure focus is as sharp as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Focusing on Mars is tricky at the moment I think.I'm not at all convinced that the focus is exactly the same on a star as it is on Mars. Certainly I find that the focus positions for the Sun and Moon seem to vary at the kind of image scales we're talking about for solar system imaging. Unfortunately at the kind of altitudes it's reaching this year Mars is very hard to actually focus on itself, so focusing on a nearby star may be the best we can do.James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jambouk Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Great result! I've been struggling with Mars and focus. In fact i struggle with focus on everything; i'm surprised there isn't some software which can work out the best possible focus over a 30-60 second period for planets. I've been experimenting with whacking the gamma right up (a friend suggested something similar to me) and then making the disc as tight as possible, then reducing the gamma back down, but this hasn't resulted in meaningful results yet. I think the low altitude and jet stream have a lot to answer for.JdSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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