Me First Attempt to Image Mars

[AstroEd]

Hi all I been away awhile since my Dad passed away but I am slowly making my way back. Tonight I got out and pointed the scope and new Mallincam Extreme at Mars and here is a quick result will try to get better stacks soon. The first image is the raw stack, The second image is slightly edited in GIMP.

[Pete Presland]

congratulations on your 1st Mars images! some nice surface detail showing there.

[AstroEd]

Thanks, When I looked through the scope during setup I could clearly see the polar caps but when I got the cam installed the clouds started to roll in. Hope to get better later, OR learn Registax better to pull out more detail.

[AstroEd]

I see a lot of others folks here using 11" EdgeHD's like mine. Their images of Mars are large like the size of a Quarter and clear where mine is the size of a pencil eraser what am I doing wrong? I am not sure if these images was when my friend put in the barlow or not.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice first capture. I assume you are using the C11 at its native F/10, whereas most imagers (like me) use at least 2-3x teleXtenders or PowerMates to get to F/20 to F/30 (or even F/40). Much bigger images.

[knobby]

Hi Ed, try using a Barlow as Michael says, it will make things harder to focus etc but increase the size. You can also try drizzle in Registax when stacking. Sorry about your Dad... Lost mine too, coming up for a year now and still gutted. Thoughts are with you

[AstroEd]

Thanks Knobby, I miss him but at the same time am glad he di not live long enough for dementia and Parkinson's to really drag him down.

I did use a Barlow later but the video came out too soft to get any detail out of Registax am looking to buy a 2.5x and maybe a 5x powermate if I cand find a decent condition used one.

[AstroEd]

Also my alignment was not proper had a lot of drift could not image over 15 seconds, I even tried stitching 3 15 second videos into one did not improve any details. I am still learning I have 80mm Guidescope and a Starlite Xpress Lodestar that I have not used yet since I do not know how yet.