Lunar occultation of Mars - 8 Dec 2022

[geoflewis]

I set my alarm for 4am and woke up to superb clear skies, but in the 15 mins it took me to get dressed and pen the observatory the sky was 50% cloud with Mars no longer visible in the bright cloudy halo of Mars. I had enugh to get the target on the sensor, but no chance to focus. I decided to get the DSLR+200mm lens out on the tripod and as I was just getting that ging about 5 mins before occultation I saw a clear patch heading towards the Moon, so raced back to the observatory. I was able to do a quick, nearly focus, fidled a bit with gain for balance between Moon and Mars, but couldn't do more than that as I could see the Moon racing towards Mars on the sensor. I started with 10s captures, but dropped them to 4 secs, all at 5ms (136fps for full sensor).  I had intended to remove the barlow lens, but didn't have time, so these are really close in views. Of course just as the occultation started, clouds moved over the Moon so I had to ramp up the gain to get anything, then seconds after the final capture the Moon completely disappeared.

They're not as clear as I'd hope to get, but they give an idea what I saw. I have a few more SERs captured with Mars further out, but I think they will be just more of the same. Images are slightly different sizes as I had to crop differently, plus I needed to give the mount a nughe as Mars was heading too far south as it approached the lunar limb.

Edited December 8, 2022 by geoflewis

[Franklin]

Wow!

[Jarvo]

Excellent work. Well done. 

[Space Cowboy]

Great capture Geof! You must have been chuffed with that! Catch of the day! 👏

[Kon]

Very very nice. I like your sequence of events. Mars is still showing some of the characteristic features, so a good way to capture the event. I agree the seeing was not good for the barlow last night.  Even getting focus on the moon was a nightmare this morning. At least you are fighting that covid. I hope you are getting better by the day!

[geoflewis]

4 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Great capture Geof! You must have been chuffed with that! Catch of the day! 👏

Thanks Stuart, catching the occultation, was certainly a lot more fun than catching Covid......🤣

[geoflewis]

26 minutes ago, Kon said:

Very very nice. I like your sequence of events. Mars is still showing some of the characteristic features, so a good way to capture the event. I agree the seeing was not good for the barlow last night.  Even getting focus on the moon was a nightmare this morning. At least you are fighting that covid. I hope you are getting better by the day!

Thanks Kostas, I actually did a quick ROI and focus on Mars, just before the lunar limb came onto the chip, then a quick gain setting check for both Mars and Moon. It was all a bit of a rush, before I started capturing. I couldn't believe my luck to get that gap in the clouds, but it didn't last more than about 3 minutes, with clouds hitting me again right at the critical momemt of occultation. I was back in bed well before 6am with more paracetamol and slept until nearly 10am. C'sest la vie - at least I got a decent recod of it.

Edited December 8, 2022 by geoflewis
clouds not clods

[neil phillips]

Nice one Geof. Out there with covid thats a love for astronomy right there. I am taking a backseat for a bit. Until some personal issues are resolved. 

[geoflewis]

Thanks Neil, mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday Sun, total idiots go out in freezing temperates full of Covid, just to howl at a full Moon occulting Mars.....🙄.  I hope you quickly get through those issues...🤞

[Kon]

13 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks Kostas, I actually did a quick ROI and focus on Mars, just before the lunar limb came onto the chip, then a quick gain setting check for both Mars and Moon. It was all a bit of a rush, before I started capturing. I couldn't believe my luck to get that gap in the clods, but it didn't last more than about 3 minutes, with clouds hitting me again right at the critical momemt of occultation. I was back in bed well before 6am with more paracetamol and slept until nearly 10am. C'sest la vie - at least I got a decent recod of it.

I had that mad rush at the reappearance with clouds and Mars moving out of the limp rather fast.

Take a well deserved break.

[Kon]

13 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

Nice one Geof. Out there with covid thats a love for astronomy right there. I am taking a backseat for a bit. Until some personal issues are resolved. 

I hope everything gets better soon as your incredible images will be missed.

[neil phillips]

13 hours ago, Kon said:

I hope everything gets better soon as your incredible images will be missed.

Appreciated Kon. 

[neil phillips]

13 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks Neil, mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday Sun, total idiots go out in freezing temperates full of Covid, just to howl at a full Moon occulting Mars.....🙄.  I hope you quickly get through those issues...🤞

Slowly being addressed. far from resolved yet though. My new mount is still in its box. Hopefully it will see the night sky at some point. Will pop in from time to time see what you guys are doing 

Cheers Geof

[chiltonstar]

Very nice images a nd presentation!

Chris

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

Very nice images a nd presentation!

Chris

Thanks Chris

[carastro]

Great work Geof and well done staying up so late in such cold conditions.

Carole 

[geoflewis]

Thanks Carole, a bit crazy going out when full of Covid, but it's been in my diary for 2 years, so if it was the last thing.......🤔

[Elp]

Great shots, I wanted to do this in conjunction with my widefield but didn't think I'd get good detail on both moon and mars, but this clearly shows it was a good session.

[geoflewis]

Just now, Elp said:

Great shots, I wanted to do this in conjunction with my widefield but didn't think I'd get good detail on both moon and mars, but this clearly shows it was a good session.

Thanks, though unfortunately still not the detail on either Mars or the Moon that I wanted to get, but I had no time to fine tune the focus due to clouds right up to the time that the occultation started. I also set up my DSLR+200mm zoom on a tripod, but I couldn't be in two places at once, so the DSLR was a miss. I should have set the DSLR rig up on my SA tracking mount and set it running a series of exposures, but my head was too foggy for that, so I concentrated on the main observatory rig.