Best Mars Yet! 15.04.2014

[catman161]

I was watching the seeing forecast especially since the back end of last week as I saw (on Wunderground weather site) that conditions were looking favourable for Tuesday for a bit of planetary imaging and I wanted another go at Mars. So I set up and in rolled a high layer of fog right where Mars would be once it cleared the trees at the end of my garden so I set to having a go at jupiter but it was wobbling all over the place so  am not holding out hope for when I process that! 

The fog became a little thinner but still clearly visible to naked eye but I thought I am not packing up without having a go and I am so glad I did! Once I got Mars on the chip it looked the most stable I have seen it yet! The seeing came in fits and starts and from 22:30-23:45 I managed 6 runs at Mars and of those 6, there are 4 of the best images I have managed of Mars yet to be seen below. All capture/process details are with the pictures below. Advice/comments always welcomed as usual

Mars Taken with an ASI120MC with the below settings through a Televue 4x Powermate and 200P on a belt driven NEQ6 Pro. Captured in Sharpcap 2 and processed in PIPP (as polar alignment was a little off and causing a little drift) then stacked in AS!2 and curves, levels and unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2. Best 75% of 5000 frames stacked.
Camera Settings:
[ASI120MC Camera (ZWO Design)]
Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=320x240
Frame Rate (fps)=Maximum
Colour Space=RGB24
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Exposure (s)=0.01561
Brightness=5
Gamma=50
WhiteBalance=5000
Gain=41

Mars 15_04_2014 23_04_21 PSP Rot by Gattouomo161, on Flickr

Mars Taken with an ASI120MC with the below settings through a Televue 4x Powermate and 200P on a belt driven NEQ6 Pro. Captured in Sharpcap 2 and processed in PIPP (as polar alignment was a little off and causing a little drift) then stacked in AS!2 and curves, levels and unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2. Best 75% of  10,000 frames stacked with 1.5 Drizzle
Camera Settings:
[ASI120MC Camera (ZWO Design)]
Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=320x240
Frame Rate (fps)=Maximum
Colour Space=RGB24
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Exposure (s)=0.01561
Brightness=5
Gamma=50
WhiteBalance=5000
Gain=41

Mars Drizzle 15_04_2014 23_17_10 PSP Sorted by Gattouomo161, on Flickr

Mars Taken with an ASI120MC with the below settings through a Televue 4x Powermate and 200P on a belt driven NEQ6 Pro. Captured in Sharpcap 2 and processed in PIPP (as polar alignment was a little off and causing a little drift) then stacked in AS!2 and curves, levels and unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2. Best 75% of 10,000 frames stacked with 1.5 Drizzle
Camera Settings:
[ASI120MC Camera (ZWO Design)]
Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=320x240
Frame Rate (fps)=Maximum
Colour Space=RGB24
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Exposure (s)=0.01561
Brightness=5
Gamma=50
WhiteBalance=5000
Gain=44

Mars Drizzle 15_04_2014 23_24_49 PSP by Gattouomo161, on Flickr

Mars Taken with an ASI120MC with the below settings through a Televue 4x Powermate and 200P on a belt driven NEQ6 Pro. Captured in Sharpcap 2 and processed in PIPP (as polar alignment was a little off and causing a little drift) then stacked in AS!2 and curves, levels and unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2. Best 75% of 5,000 frames stacked.
Camera Settings:
[ASI120MC Camera (ZWO Design)]
Frame Divisor=1
Resolution=320x240
Frame Rate (fps)=Maximum
Colour Space=RGB24
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Exposure (s)=0.01561
Brightness=5
Gamma=50
WhiteBalance=5000
Gain=44

Mars 15_04_2014 23_33_01 PSP by Gattouomo161, on Flickr

[Bart]

Very nice, well done.

Barry

[PeterCPC]

Very nice. I went out to try for Mars and, as usual, the clouds rolled in. Mars does not like me trying to capture it!

Peter

[brantuk]

Amazing detail - never seen Mars so clear - fabulous pics

[Space Cowboy]

Excellent images!

[theo]

They are very nice indeed. Nice work!!

Pete

[catman161]

Thanks guys, much appreciate the compliments. I'm well chuffed with the results

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[simmo39]

so clear, brill,

[SnakeyJ]

Very nice indeed Felix - looks like the 15th has yielded some of the best conditions so far for imaging, hopefully this week will stay clear and deliver more good seeing.

[si@nite]

Very nice indeed great stuff!

[catman161]

Thanks Guys. Here's to hoping conditions stay at this level for a bit wishful thinking though probably!

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[JamesF]

Some very nice images there.

James

[catman161]

Thanks James

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[sologuitarist61]

Well done - very good!

[catman161]

Thanks

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[Pete Presland]

very nice image, the ASI is is doing a fine job!!! i thought the conditions had already slipped a bit last night compared to the 15th

[catman161]

Thanks Pete. Yep the seeing was worse after the 15th I agree

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