Mars - 12 Dec 2022

[geoflewis]

I braved the freezing cold last night as I wanted to get an image of Mars with Tithonius Lacus, Noctis Lacus and Solis Lacus front and central. To me Tithonius Lacus & Noctis Lacus look like ET's pointing finger....

Conditions were very frustrating, promising better than I could muster. Seeing wasn't great, not terrible, but I couldn't get the rig to hold focus more than a couple of minutes, which I suspect was due to temperatures continuing to fall - it was -4C by the time I gave in and I was very cold.

Ideally I wanted to de-rotate 3x3 min runs, but I could see that focus had deteriorated significantly, even after 2 consecutive runs. Hence, despite me spending the best part of 2 hours in increasingly freezing conditions, this image is the best 10k frames a from a single 3 min SER captured mid session. Despite me constatly checking focus, the other 18 SERs that I captured just wouldn't give me anything good enough to keep.

The polar hood remains strong, Olympus Mons is just rotating into view at the 10 o'clock position and there is morning cloud over the SE limb.

Thanks for looking

Edited December 13, 2022 by geoflewis

[BGazing]

Great image, you captured it after I have captured mine on the same date, huge improvement in resolution but nice to see how the same features rotate across the surface.

[geoflewis]

Thanks BGazing. It's an aspect that I wanted to image, as I'd not seen that particular view this apparition previously, so was pleased to take advantage of the 100% illumination.

[Kon]

Excellent image with loads of details. It seems you got that one good shot. I would have given up past 2-3 bad captures at -4! 

[geoflewis]

41 minutes ago, Kon said:

Excellent image with loads of details. It seems you got that one good shot. I would have given up past 2-3 bad captures at -4! 

Thanks Kostas, I kept going as it is an aspect of Mars that I've not imaged previously this apparition, so an opportunity to grab it whilst Mars is still at 100% phase was something that I didn't want to miss, as in this country you never know if you'll get a 2nd chance. I started imaging at about 7:50pm and got that one decent video just before 9pm. I continued until 10pm, then gave up as it was wasn't happening for me, despite that I could see pretty good details on screen each time I tweaked the focus. I'm pleased that I got that one good one though.....

[Space Cowboy]

Lovely image Geof! Maybe more in that one?

Isn't your Observatory centrally heated? 😎

[geoflewis]

1 hour ago, Space Cowboy said:

Lovely image Geof! Maybe more in that one?

Isn't your Observatory centrally heated? 😎

Thanks Stuart, are you suggesting that I push a bit harder on this image? I already pushed harder than I thought I should.

My observatory does have a warm room, with a little fan heater, which I sometimes use if I'm out there shooting DSOs, but I've never automated my planetary imaging. I sit next to the mount to use the HC to periodically nudge alignment, plus I don't have a motorised FW, so if doing mono RGB that's a manual change. I'm also using a manual focus controller to the EF, hence I'm sat outside under the stars in freezing conditions, which starts to become pretty unpleasant after a couple of hours at sub 0C, despite me wearing thermals and several layers on top...... 🥶🥶

[Space Cowboy]

16 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks Stuart, are you suggesting that I push a bit harder on this image? I already pushed harder than I thought I should.

My observatory does have a warm room, with a little fan heater, which I sometimes use if I'm out there shooting DSOs, but I've never automated my planetary imaging. I sit next to the mount to use the HC to periodically nudge alignment, plus I don't have a motorised FW, so if doing mono RGB that's a manual change. I'm also using a manual focus controller to the EF, hence I'm sat outside under the stars in freezing conditions, which starts to become pretty unpleasant after a couple of hours at sub 0C, despite me wearing thermals and several layers on top...... 🥶🥶

Definitely can push more on this  (said the midwife). Very responsive to selective contrast/sharpening. Your best Mars image to date I reckon.

Sounds very swish in your Observatory 😉 I too have a warm room (pop up toilet tent) 😎

[geoflewis]

36 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Definitely can push more on this  (said the midwife). Very responsive to selective contrast/sharpening. Your best Mars image to date I reckon.

Sounds very swish in your Observatory 😉 I too have a warm room (pop up toilet tent) 😎

Hmmm, that's interesting. You're making me wonder if I could extract more from the images on 8th and 10th as I feel that the seeing was superior then. Maybe I'll take a look at a single image without putting it through Jupos.

[geoflewis]

2 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Definitely can push more on this  (said the midwife). Very responsive to selective contrast/sharpening.

How about this Stuart.....

Quite a bit stronger wavelets used on the left version compared with my original post shown on right for easier comparison. Is it now too much.....?

Here's a re-work of a single stack from my data on 10 Dec, so no de-rotation in WinJupos, but given similar treatment to the above revision...

It's how I originally processed it, but decided it was too much, so what do you think of it please?

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by geoflewis

[si@nite]

Stunning detail Geof the top left looks really nice to my eyes, again cracking shots!

[geoflewis]

5 minutes ago, si@nite said:

Stunning detail Geof the top left looks really nice to my eyes, again cracking shots!

Thanks Simon, as you'll have noted, I reprocessed it because Sutart @Space Cowboy suggested it had more to give. I was maybe a bit over cautious with the version originally posted.

[Space Cowboy]

5 hours ago, geoflewis said:

How about this Stuart.....

Quite a bit stronger wavelets used on the left version compared with my original post shown on right for easier comparison. Is it now too much.....?

Here's a re-work of a single stack from my data on 10 Dec, so no de-rotation in WinJupos, but given similar treatment to the above revision...

It's how I originally processed it, but decided it was too much, so what do you think of it please?

 

Repro looks great Geof! Love the cap definition. Limb rind showing a little on the other nights image so maybe that one not benifitting as much.  Top notch for the UK.  Most imagers would kill for this data 🙂

[geoflewis]

3 minutes ago, Space Cowboy said:

Repro looks great Geof! Love the cap definition. Limb rind showing a little on the other nights image so maybe that one not benifitting as much.  Top notch for the UK.  Most imagers would kill for this data 🙂

Thanks Stuart, it's pretty much where I originally had it, but I became concerned that too much noise was coming through, especially in the region around Olympus Mons, so back it right off. It's really good to get your feedback on when to push. a bit harder, so thanks again. I'll update the images I've posted on other sites with this revision.

[Kon]

16 hours ago, geoflewis said:

How about this Stuart.....

Quite a bit stronger wavelets used on the left version compared with my original post shown on right for easier comparison. Is it now too much.....?

Here's a re-work of a single stack from my data on 10 Dec, so no de-rotation in WinJupos, but given similar treatment to the above revision...

It's how I originally processed it, but decided it was too much, so what do you think of it please?

 

Cracking reworks. I think you have really nice data and not much noise is creeping through. In the first one, the north polar hood is showing a cloud that is giving a nice 3d feeling to it.

I think they are some of the best I have seen this season.

[geoflewis]

43 minutes ago, Kon said:

Cracking reworks. I think you have really nice data and not much noise is creeping through. In the first one, the north polar hood is showing a cloud that is giving a nice 3d feeling to it.

I think they are some of the best I have seen this season.

Thanks Kostas, I seem to oscillate between too much sharpening/noise and not enough. I suspect that this may be an adverse consequence of me processing data on a fairly small laptop screen, but I don’t have a larger screen available. I do know that sometimes I’m struggling to see fine detail until I’ve pushed the processing too far.

Edited December 15, 2022 by geoflewis

[Rustang]

Not that I'm a pro at Planetary imaging but top left of re work for me, an awesome capture, it was originally anyway but the re work just gives it that edge and definitely hasn't gone to far. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Rustang

[geoflewis]

1 hour ago, Rustang said:

Not that I'm a pro at Planetary imaging but top left of re work for me, an awesome capture, it was originally anyway but the re work just gives it that edge and definitely hasn't gone to far. 

Thanks Rustang, I appreciate the feedback.

[Kon]

15 hours ago, geoflewis said:

I'll update the images I've posted on other sites with this revision.

I think you should make a new post in sgl as well as they deserve the visibility. Like I said, the best I have seen.

 

3 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks Kostas, I seem to oscillate between too much sharpening/noise and not enough. I suspect that this may be an adverse consequence of me processing data on a fairly small laptop screen, but I don’t have a larger screen available. I do know that sometimes I’m struggling to see fine detail until I’ve pushed the processing too far.

It's very easy to go to the wrong side of sharpening as we are drawn to more 'details' despite the noise. These images have no noise at all and even Olympus Mons is showing more details even on top.

 

 

[geoflewis]

56 minutes ago, Kon said:

I think you should make a new post in sgl as well as they deserve the visibility. Like I said, the best I have seen.

It's very easy to go to the wrong side of sharpening as we are drawn to more 'details' despite the noise. These images have no noise at all and even Olympus Mons is showing more details even on top.

Thanks Kostas, don't you think that anyone interested will have seen the revison here?

What most concerned me was that reddish peak on Olympus Mons, which I took to be colour noise being sharpened, but maybe you're right and it's a real feature. There are a couple of other reddish regions that I felt were not real, but artefacts from over sharpening, but if you and others feel the net result is a better image overall, then I'm pleased to go with this version. I sent the annotated revision to Richard McKim, BAA Mars section director and he was also complimentary about the revision.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Since I've been using a 32" monitor (old hd TV) it's been a revelation for processing. 

You could always connect your laptop to your TV with an hd cable. There's nothing on the box now England are out of the world cup!

[geoflewis]

1 minute ago, Space Cowboy said:

Since I've been using a 32" monitor (old hd TV) it's been a revelation for processing. 

You could always connect your laptop to your TV with an hd cable. There's nothing on the box now England are out of the world cup!

So do you think my 65" Sony Bravia OLED would cut it....?

[Kon]

22 minutes ago, geoflewis said:

Thanks Kostas, don't you think that anyone interested will have seen the revison here?

What most concerned me was that reddish peak on Olympus Mons, which I took to be colour noise being sharpened, but maybe you're right and it's a real feature. There are a couple of other reddish regions that I felt were not real, but artefacts from over sharpening, but if you and others feel the net result is a better image overall, then I'm pleased to go with this version. I sent the annotated revision to Richard McKim, BAA Mars section director and he was also complimentary about the revision.

Only a suggestion for the ones that may not go through the whole thread, up to you 😉.

 

In my opinion that feature is probably real; you see a similar structure/pattern on high resolution images. I don't think you are carrying much noise on these images.

22 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Here's a re-work of a single stack from my data on 10 Dec, so no de-rotation in WinJupos, but given similar treatment to the above revision...

If in doubt, why not try a similar process to the other stacks and see if that feature comes up as well?

[geoflewis]

7 minutes ago, Kon said:

Only a suggestion for the ones that may not go through the whole thread, up to you

I've just posted the annotated revision.....

[Space Cowboy]

2 hours ago, geoflewis said:

So do you think my 65" Sony Bravia OLED would cut it....?

Oh yes! 💪