Mars 09/08/2020

[cuivenion]

This Mars image was taken on 09/08/2020 at 3.20am. It's my first planetary image in over two years, and it was nice to get back to it. Can't wait to get my motorized focuser sorted, manual focus on planets isn't easy! Transparency was good but seeing wasn't great unfortunately. I'm happy with the result though.

Mount: Skywatcher HEQ5

Scope: Skywatcher 200P

Camera: ZWO ASI224

I used a Revelation 5x barlow lens so the focal length was 5000mm. The software used was Sharpcap for capture, Autostakkert 3 for stacking and Pixinsight for processing. The image uses the best 4000 frames from 43827 from a 3 minute capture:

Any comments or criticisms welcome as usual. One question; is there a site where you can compare your image to a globe of Mars to check you're not introducing artifacts in the processing.

[MarkAR]

Good result, just keep having a go until you get perfect skies.

[CraigT82]

That's a really nice effort, well done!  For checking the mars globe I use Sky Safari app on my phone, or Stelarium on laptop, Winjupos ephemerides tool is ok too.

[cuivenion]

Cheers guys, I'll definitely keep at it.

 

[Pete Presland]

Very nicely captured, the polar region is very bright.

[cuivenion]

Cheers Pete. Hopefully I can have another go tonight.