Droogie 2001 Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 I thought I would have a crack at imaging Mars last night as I haven't taken any planetary images since 2014. I forgot what fun you can have with trying to focus and locate the target on a tiny CMOS chip! Despite its elevation being a pitiful 16 degrees it did at least produce some detail. Also tried Saturn but initial results look pretty poor. ASI120MC, x2 Barlow, Celestron 8SE. Fire Capture, PIPP, Auto Stakkert 2, Registax 6, PS 2015CC 2000 frames, best 10% processed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeDnight Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 What an absoloutly superb, truthful, image of Mars! You obviously have a hidden talent that I hope you won't keep hidden. Thanks so much for posting! Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael.h.f.wilkinson Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Really very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groberts Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Nice one Droogie, I was playing around with Mars and Saturn last night also in Surrey - then from nowhere some cloud came along. I also use ZWO ASI 120MC + Firecapture; what settings did you use? Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laudropb Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 That really is a lovely image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Droogie 2001 Posted June 6, 2016 Author Share Posted June 6, 2016 Thanks for the positive comments guys. Graham. Yes I think I had the same clouds as you had . After spending 20min locating and focusing Mars they just rolled in, typical! Just copied the log file. I also selected the Mars symbol from the Fire Capture pre-sets. It wasn't too bad with adjusting the exposure as I was aware of not under and over exposing the planet. Nothing worse than being left with a bunch of videos which are impossible to process, been then and done that for sure. Frames captured=2017 File type=AVI Extended AVI mode=true Compressed AVI=false Binning=no ROI=800x640 FPS (avg.)=67 Shutter=12.31ms Gain=84 Gamma=50 WBlue=95 USBTraffic=80 Brightness=0 AutoExposure=off SoftwareGain=10 (off) Overclock=15 WRed=52 Histogramm(min)=0 Histogramm(max)=156 Histogramm=61% Noise(avg.deviation)=n/a Limit=30 Seconds Sensor temperature=16.2 °C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groberts Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Thanks Droogie, very helpful. Might try again tonight if the Met Office have it right - let's see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StargeezerTim Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Lovely detail. Last night was excellent seeing here. Very little wobbling about and you could even see some detail on live view. That is a lovely image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Presland Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 That is a fine image of Mars, a really tough target! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeskor Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 That's a fine Mars. Well done. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Interesting, that's 3 times the exposure length I was using, perhaps I should up the exposure a little and reduce gain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Droogie 2001 Posted June 7, 2016 Author Share Posted June 7, 2016 It seems that the gain and exposure work it opposites to each other so I never really know if I should apply more exposure and less gain or the opposite. For once I seemed to get a good balance and considering I hadn't used Fire Capture for nearly 2 years I was pleasantly surprised it came out okay. What is a little depressing is that following in 2018 the maximum height Mars will get to in the 50 Latitude zone is 14 degrees, however in 2020 it does reach a decent 40 degrees. I think Saturn is even worse for the foreseeable future... This site contains some useful information (scroll to very bottom for Mars elevation stats) http://www.nakedeyeplanets.com/mars.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterCPC Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Nice image. I wish we would get a clear night here to have a go but it's just endless cloud every night. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Mars shift by about two weeks every year, so next year it will be at opposition more or less spot on the solstice, but that won't be much worse than this year, then it improves a little every year as Jupiter drops down the sky rather faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kokatha man Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 A very good outcome - next time try to capture for as long as clouds etc allow & you will have far more than 2017 frames to play with which will give you even better outcomes providing the seeing etc is up to what it was here!!! 6 minute long avi's are absolutely fine & what we do always...for you that would've meant 24.000 frames to work with! Nothing wrong with your FC settings although you could reduce your ROI...remember that the "height" of the ROI determines whether you can run at any specific maximum frame-rate.(in your case 600 pixels from the settings data you supplied) Shutter speed multiplied by fps should give you unity for setting the optimum frame-rate/exposure adjustments & in this case you should have been able to increase the exposure to almost 15 milliseconds. (67 x 15 = 1 approx.) What this means is that instead of 12.31 milliseconds you could have "let more light in" for each frame's capture...the result would have been a higher histogram which you would not have needed so you could have lowered the gain for the same frame-rate. Setting "Brightness" to "16" also ekes out a bit more on the histogram & allows a tad more lowering of the gain setting - "0" is only necessary if daylight is starting to intrude upon your imaging! Lower gain is always preferable if you can do so...& this should have been achievable in the FC settings...if not, then the 600 pixel high ROI/box you selected for capturing might've been inhibiting this & dropping it down to (say) 550 or 500 should fix anything therein - it has been a long time since I used the 120MC...but them's the facts! Nonetheless, as I said a very good outcome!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarsG76 Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 Excellent result, great detail captured there... well done... awesome to see some great success from another 8SE owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Droogie 2001 Posted June 9, 2016 Author Share Posted June 9, 2016 Thanks. I did a reprocess in Registax and used a histogram stretch. I think it makes it less orangey and more natural? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calli Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 On 6.6.2016 at 16:08, Droogie 2001 said: I thought I would have a crack at imaging Mars last night as I haven't taken any planetary images since 2014. I forgot what fun you can have with trying to focus and locate the target on a tiny CMOS chip! Haha 100%! I found the Spiraling of SharpCap funtion extremely usefull for finding your target. I think I also saw it in other ascom.mount controls but forget where, hints welcome, as Firecapture is IMHO better suited for planetary imaging, alone the AutoAlign is superp and helpfull. Carsten Left my images, right calculated from JuPos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Dave Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 You've captured some very good detail there Droogie, well done. I'm using the Celestron Nexstar 8i and I'd be over the moon to get detail like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarsG76 Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 On 09/06/2016 at 21:36, Droogie 2001 said: Thanks. I did a reprocess in Registax and used a histogram stretch. I think it makes it less orangey and more natural? Yup, that beautiful.... nice detailed and natural looking, not over cooked that's easy to do in the quest for ever more detail... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Droogie 2001 Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 Thanks to everyone for the kind comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KE400 Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 A Mars to be proud of, well done, the detail you have captured is fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyson M Posted June 15, 2016 Share Posted June 15, 2016 Very nice Mars. I agree with above, I would be very proud of that image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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