My first martian

[stevewanstall]

This is my first ever image of Mars. It was captured using SharpCap, with a ZWO1600M on a Celestron 9.25 XLT. I messed up quite a bit, ruining a lot of frames by have too dim a blue channel. )So, this is based on the poorest resolution camera settings, 800 x 600 pixels. 1000 frames per channel, at around 18 fps, best 25%) However, it is recognisably Mars, so I do have a degree of satisfaction, also I now have a target to improve against.  The ice cap is clearly visible, as are dark and light areas . And its Red!

[CraigT82]

Great start, nice one! Can you really not set the ROI capture size to less than 800x600 on the ASI1600? 

[stevewanstall]

49 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Great start, nice one! Can you really not set the ROI capture size to less than 800x600 on the ASI1600? 

Probably, that was just the lowest I had used. I have not really used SharpCap much or experimented with changing the filed size ROI setting. There is always so much to do/learn!

[KEJ]

You should be able to get it lower, have you tried or it just does not appear on the pulldown list ?

I'm also pretty new, but I always try to use a x2 Barlow if you have one and play with the histogram to get it away from the left(Blacks/darks) and no more than 80% along to the right.

By reducing the ROI, it also enables you to whack up the FPS, I did manage over 500fps the other night(poor seeing mind) with my new ASI462MC with a small ROI.

Raw8 and I still tend to stick with avi, although the experts use Ser