Mars: My First Official Image of the Season!

[orion25]

Here it is, everyone! My first official Mars image of the year. I took this image on June 10, at predawn. It was about 3:40 a.m. EDT, calm and still, with only the sounds of the resident hoot owl, a symphony of crickets and a distant train. It felt like the whole world was sleeping as I was working away. I had had my Big Mak out pretty much all night focusing on planets, starting with Venus at sunset.  Now, Mars was at near its peak elevation for me; I had been waiting all night for this!  Mars looked simply awesome in my 6mm Orion Expanse EP. I gazed for several minutes in awe at the magnificent, bright peach orb...then...TIME TO IMAGE. But guess what? My new 5MP Solar System camera CRASHED (wouldn't you know it-but I got it working again, it was a Windoze compatibility thing)!!! Sooooo, I pulled out the trusty old Orion Deep Space Video Camera II, tweaked it for solar system imaging and marvelled at the result! I tried a barlow shot and got some curious blue fringing around the terminator that I touched up a bit in Photoshop. Both images were processed in Registax 6 from video:

 

Here is the barlowed image:

These images pretty much match what I saw in the EP, with a little less clarity, but for the most part spot on. I was pleased with the results! Mars was in rare form that night, and the best is yet to come (if the windstorms don't ruin the view)!

Cheers!

Reggie

[tooth_dr]

Reggie that is first class. Very very good 

[Tommohawk]

Nice job Reggie - I'd be very pleased with that! And I like the write up too.

[astroman001]

Good job, well done for staying up to image all the planets.

Peter

[orion25]

23 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Reggie that is first class. Very very good 

Thanks, Tooth Dr. I only hope that the best is yet to come!

[orion25]

19 hours ago, Tommohawk said:

Nice job Reggie - I'd be very pleased with that! And I like the write up too.

Thanks, Tom. It was a very peaceful morning

[orion25]

17 hours ago, astroman001 said:

Good job, well done for staying up to image all the planets.

Peter

Thanks, Peter. I'll be glad when I won't have to stay up so late! ?

[morimarty]

Thats a cracking image Reggie very well done.

[orion25]

53 minutes ago, morimarty said:

Thats a cracking image Reggie very well done.

Thanks, Martyn! I'll be watching Mars for a little while now, lol

[U Cyg]

Nicely done Reggie. ?

I've been sneaking a couple of hours sleep between Jupiter & Saturn, then waiting for Mars.  

Angie  

[orion25]

7 hours ago, U Cyg said:

Nicely done Reggie. ?

I've been sneaking a couple of hours sleep between Jupiter & Saturn, then waiting for Mars.  

Angie  

Thanks, Angie. I got a late night view of Mars last evening and saw a relatively smooth, peach disc. Not much detail due to the dust storms. I was using my 127mm Mak and a 6mm Orion Expanse EP. Tonight, I'm going to use my Mars filter, but there may not be much detail to work with