Mars, Phobos and Deimos, this time in colour

[lukebl]

A while back I posted a mono image showing Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos. Always very tricky to capture due to the overwhelming brightness of Mars.

Last night (12th December 2022) they were both at elongation again, so I had a go in colour. I captured just c.200 full-frames each of R, G & B with my ZWO ASI290MM, 250mm f/4.8 Newtonian and 5x TV powermate. 200ms exposures at a rate of just 1-2 fps. Processed in Registax and Photoshop.

It's a bit messy, but at least you can see them! The detailed image of Mars was a separate capture (below).

Mars itself was captured with a ZWO ASI120mc-s colour cam, 250mm f/4.8 Newtonian and 5x TV powermate. About 31,000 frames, 2.7ms exposures, 211fps.

The seeing has improved considerably recently, and at last I'm managing to capture at least a bit of detail.

 

 

[Kon]

Very nice capture of the moons. Your Mars is also showing nice details.

[geoflewis]

Both are excellent Luke. I've never tried to capture Mars' moons. You can't be very far from me and I really struggled with the seeing, or perhaps more accurately a rapidly changing focus position as the temperature continued to fall - it was frezing out there last night.....🥶

[lukebl]

42 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Both are excellent Luke. I've never tried to capture Mars' moons. You can't be very far from me….

Thanks Geof. Out of interest, and without giving too much away, actually how far are you from me? I’m in the village of Banham.

[geoflewis]

2 minutes ago, lukebl said:

Thanks Geof. Out of interest, and without giving too much away, actually how far are you from me? I’m in the village of Banham.

Oh, that even closer than I thought - so about 6 miles, I'm between Bunwell and Spooner Row, the other side of New Buckenham, from Banham....

[lukebl]

50 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

…. I'm between Bunwell and Spooner Row, the other side of New Buckenham, from Banham....

Well it’s a small world.
12,756km in diameter to be precise!

[geoflewis]

6 minutes ago, lukebl said:

Well it’s a small world.
12,756km in diameter to be precise!

I'd be happy to meet you for a beer, or other beverage at the Garden House, Banham sometime. I've not been there since Covid kicked off, but my wife and I tried a couple of times previously and enjoyed it.