Mars, the bringer of War (or is that dust?)

[Knighty2112]

Had a chance last night to capture Mars around 1am onwards. Taken with my C8 SCT, with ZWO ASI 120 mc. Sadly no features visible, so that dust storm must be waging war on Mar's surface still. Two images taken from about 7 files taken (still to process the rest). Checked with the moon that I got focus as sharp as possible too. Hopefully once the storm on Mars ceases then more detail should become visible. A good start for a first Mars image anyway. Really liking FireCature to take the images, as opposed to Sharpcap. Processed through Registax, & PS.

[tooth_dr]

10 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Had a chance last night to capture Mars around 1am onwards. Taken with my C8 SCT, with ZWO ASI 120 mc. Sadly no features visible, so that dust storm must be wagging war on Mar's surface still. Two images taken from about 7 files taken (still to process the rest). Checked with the moon that I got focus as sharp as possible too. Hopefully once the storm on Mars ceases then more detail should become visible. A good start for a first Mars image anyway. Really liking FireCature to take the images, as opposed to Sharpcap. Processed through Registax, & PS.

I tried mars too on Wed. It looked very similar to your image - a big orange brown ball 

[paulastro]

Yes, I was observing at this time.  Seeing was poorer of late but I did think in better moments I could see where the S Polar cap was, and an albedo feature.  Most of the time though it looked like your image.  I'm sure you'll be getting some nice detail when the dust settles. 

[Knighty2112]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

I tried mars too on Wed. It looked very similar to your image - a big orange brown ball 

Yes, not much detail at the moment but hoping Mars will settle down again before conjunction. Fingers crossed!

[Knighty2112]

30 minutes ago, paulastro said:

Yes, I was observing at this time.  Seeing was poorer of late but I did think in better moments I could see where the S Polar cap was, and an albedo feature.  Most of the time though it looked like your image.  I'm sure you'll be getting some nice detail when the dust settles. 

I too could see brief flashes of the polar region in visual, but this wasn’t really picked up by the camera. There is a region in the second image that may correspond to this at the top of the image (south as I never did a flip of the image) that may correspond to this, but not showing in white, but a slightly less red area. Going to try for more images tonight hopefully. 

[paulastro]

31 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

I too could see brief flashes of the polar region in visual, but this wasn’t really picked up by the camera. There is a region in the second image that may correspond to this at the top of the image (south as I never did a flip of the image) that may correspond to this, but not showing in white, but a slightly less red area. Going to try for more images tonight hopefully. 

I think you might have something there Gus.  It looks like it's in the position I saw it.  Visually it was rather as you described on the moments I thought I glimpsed it, not white but a paler looking, perhaps grey, and it was also in proportion to what is in your second image.  It was nice and white back in May though and hopefully we'll be seeing it again soon.

I like the orientation, I was using a Maksutov-Newtonian .

[Archonom]

Good to see that I am not the only one struggling with getting details of Mars. I still like your results since Mars is always fascinating me. Here are some of my images from last night:

 

[Knighty2112]

2 minutes ago, Archonom said:

Good to see that I am not the only one struggling with getting details of Mars. I still like your results since Mars is always fascinating me. Here are some of my images from last night:

 

Excellent images. You certainly managed to pull out more detail than me. Well done!  

[Archonom]

Thank you @Knighty2112 , that's very kind. Hopefully the dust strom will settle soon, so we at least will be able to see if we don't catch any details because of a wrong focus or some other reason *giggle*

[paulastro]

45 minutes ago, Archonom said:

Good to see that I am not the only one struggling with getting details of Mars. I still like your results since Mars is always fascinating me. Here are some of my images from last night:

 

Very nice images, the details you have caught give me some hope that perhaps the dust is starting to clear, or at least thin a little.  Assuming your images have south at the top, going from left to right it looks as if you have captured Syrtis Major and Sinus Sabeus/Sinus Meridiani with the brighter area Aeria to the north (below in the images) of them.  I'm sure if I've got this wrong someone will correct me! 

[Archonom]

2 hours ago, paulastro said:

Very nice images, the details you have caught give me some hope that perhaps the dust is starting to clear, or at least thin a little.  Assuming your images have south at the top, going from left to right it looks as if you have captured Syrtis Major and Sinus Sabeus/Sinus Meridiani with the brighter area Aeria to the north (below in the images) of them.  I'm sure if I've got this wrong someone will correct me!

Thanks paulastro. Your comment is very motivating, I just realized you might be right that one is able to recognize Syrtis Major. I wondered what the very bright spot in other images would be, and now as you say it, I think one was able to spot the difference between dust/clouds and Arabia Terra. Cool! I love this hobby.

[morimarty]

Nicely captured Gus I do hope the dust storm subsides soon.

[Knighty2112]

11 minutes ago, morimarty said:

Nicely captured Gus I do hope the dust storm subsides soon.

Thanks Martyn. Yes, hoping it all settles down nicely again for opposition.  

[paulastro]

3 hours ago, Archonom said:

Thanks paulastro. Your comment is very motivating, I just realized you might be right that one is able to recognize Syrtis Major. I wondered what the very bright spot in other images would be, and now as you say it, I think one was able to spot the difference between dust/clouds and Arabia Terra. Cool! I love this hobby.

You may find this useful if you haven't already see it.  It's compiled by Ade Ashford and shows what's on the face of Mars turned toward the earth for any date or time of the current apparition.

https://astronomynow.com/mars/

[orion25]

Great effort, Gus! You got nice color there; I was able to get some subtle detail on 6/29, polar ice clouds mainly, which is more than I could see last week. I hope the dust is thinning! Here is the result with the Orion Deep Space Video Cam II:

And here is the result from the Orion 5MP StarShoot Solar System Camera:

Clear skies,

Reggie

[Archonom]

2 hours ago, paulastro said:

You may find this useful if you haven't already see it.  It's compiled by Ade Ashford and shows what's on the face of Mars turned toward the earth for any date or time of the current apparition.

 https://astronomynow.com/mars/

Great! I didn't know this one, so I am happy to bookmark this website. Thanks paulastro!

[Archonom]

1 hour ago, orion25 said:

Great effort, Gus! You got nice color there; I was able to get some subtle detail on 6/29, polar ice clouds mainly, which is more than I could see last week. I hope the dust is thinning! Here is the result with the Orion Deep Space Video Cam II:

And here is the result from the Orion 5MP StarShoot Solar System Camera:

Clear skies,

Reggie

Nice shot of the polar regions, Reggie. I have been imaging Mars for 2 or 3 months, but never was able to see those spots. Hopefully I will someday. 

[Knighty2112]

1 hour ago, orion25 said:

Great effort, Gus! You got nice color there; I was able to get some subtle detail on 6/29, polar ice clouds mainly, which is more than I could see last week. I hope the dust is thinning! Here is the result with the Orion Deep Space Video Cam II:

And here is the result from the Orion 5MP StarShoot Solar System Camera:

Clear skies,

Reggie

Nice work Reggie. Love ‘em!  

[si@nite]

Well done Gus the storms certainly hiding the surface detail but the polar regions are showing up well in your images, ive yet to image it this showing!

[Cosmic Geoff]

Morning of 1 July - still the same tale of woe.

I( imaged with the planet at an altitude of about 11 deg, using Celestron C8, ASI120MC, ADC, processed in Registax6. The seeing was bad. Stars at similar altitude were twinkling, and images of Saturn taken near transit an hour earlier fail to show the major division in the rings clearly.

This Mars image has North at the top and is de-flipped. It is just possible to make out the South polar cap.