Mars (R-RGB) - 8 Oct 2020

[geoflewis]

The seeing last night (8th Oct) was a distinct improvement over what I had for closest approach on 6th Oct. I had completely clear skies, no wind to speak of and it was cold (brrr), but who cares when you get your best result yet.

This image comprises the best 20% of 7xRGB runs of 3 mins per filter, per run. It is actually an R-RGB image as the seeing was sufficiently good to reuse the red stack as luminance applied as 70% opacity in WinJupos, rather than using the 7xIR data that I also captured. In total there are some 87,000 frames stacked, which is more like 100,000 if I double count the R stack being used twice.

The image is presented south up with the much reduced south polar cap just seen at the top of the image. The long dark region of Mare Cimmerium runs along the equatorial region, with the spike of Sinus Gomer that extends from it, clearly seen. Syrtis Minor is just rotating into view under blue clouds at the right limb. Blue clouds also lay over the north polar region. The bright red regions of Memonia and  Elysium dominate the northern (lower) half of the image. Elysium Mons is seen as a bright spot approacing the central meridian above the north polar clouds, with the dark spot Cerberus seen above it. The largest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons, is the bright spot just rotating out of view at the lower left limb. The dark region below the south polar cap, Mare Chronium and the lighter mottled region of Eridania just above Mare Cimmerium, show several detail structures.

Thanks for looking.

[AbsolutelyN]

Wow, that's absolutely amazing. Thanks for all the info, on astrobin as well as here. 
I need a bigger scope 🙂

[geoflewis]

3 minutes ago, AbsolutelyN said:

Wow, that's absolutely amazing. Thanks for all the info, on astrobin as well as here. 
I need a bigger scope 🙂

Thanks - we all always need a bigger scope 😏

[johnturley]

Truly amazing image, looks like the south polar cap is going to disappear completely within the next few weeks.

John 

[geoflewis]

Thanks John, yes it's definitely shrinking, but also it's not at the pole, but rotating around it, so maybe was slightly out of view during this session.

[Nik271]

Fantastic image! Thanks for the description, it's very helpful to know what is seen. 

[geoflewis]

2 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

Fantastic image! Thanks for the description, it's very helpful to know what is seen. 

Hi @Nik271, I thought it was worth going the extra mile with the description, as so much detail was visible in this one. I'm pleased that you like it and thanks for the feedback.

[johnturley]

11 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks John, yes it's definitely shrinking, but also it's not at the pole, but rotating around it, so maybe was slightly out of view during this session.

Yes, I think for this reason it appears smallest around CM longitude 180, and largest around CM longitude 0. 

[si@nite]

Them big optics pulling out some great detail Geof!

[geoflewis]

7 minutes ago, si@nite said:

Them big optics pulling out some great detail Geof!

Thanks Simon,

Yes, I'm having some fun with Mars, though this year I had no success with either Jupiter, or Saturn. That said, for me this year wass always going to be about getting some decent Mars images, so I'm very happy to have a few in the bag.

Cheers, Geof

 

 

[astroman001]

Excellent image well done.

Peter

[geoflewis]

10 minutes ago, astroman001 said:

Excellent image well done.

Peter

Thanks Peter

[geoflewis]

Hi all,

After some discussion and helpful feedback over the last couple of days, from my planetary imaging mentor, Dave Tyler, I decided to completely reprocess my Mars data from 8 October. I've dialled back the sharpening a good deal and resisted the temptation to mess with the colours to make Mars look red. Also with 90 mins of video data captured, I decided to process that as 3 separate images rather than throwing everything into the same bucket.

The attached composite image presents the resulting 3 slightly different aspects of Mars, annotated with respective time stamps, CM and changing altitude. Perhaps the most noticely feature that changes with the rotation is that Olumpus Mons, the bright spot near the lower left limb in image 1, has completely rotated out of view in image 3.

I am reliably informed that the sandy hue seen in these images, is a more accurate representation of the correct colour of Mars.

Thanks for looking.

Edited October 15, 2020 by geoflewis
updated the image

[JeremyS]

Simply stunning @geoflewis!

[geoflewis]

Thanks Jeremy

[mikey2000]

Wonderful pictures, an inspiration to all of us, showing what can be achieved with enough patience (and some appropriate kit!)   Mars is firmly stuck behind my neighbours roofs at the moment but I'm 100% sure I'm not set up for planetary photos (I'll post a shameful saturn photo soon, for your amusement!)

 

In the meantime, these pics reminded me of the War of the Worlds

"No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed that we were being scrutinised as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us..."

That would be a fitting end to 2020...!!

[geoflewis]

Many thanks @mikey2000, fyi I just updated the image with one with a slight curves and contrast enhancement. I think it gives the images a tad more polish, but it's all personal preference.

Yes, I had Jeff Wayne's album until about 2 months ago, when I sold all my HiFi and vinyl collection going back to the mid '60s. It's a brilliant album, but I hadn't listened to in in years, because my old turntable gave up the ghost. I had it repaired a couple of times, most recently about 8 years ago, but it didn't last so I finally decided that it's time was up .

I can still hear Richard Burton's voice in my head though....