January 2nd Mars

[yelsac]

As usual the weather was complete rubbish but there was a brief window of seeing for 30 mins around 7.30pm so thought why not! Managed a couple of captures.

Same setup as before 250p, QHY5III462c, IR-Cut, 2.5x barlow. 1.5 drizzled & resized (a little to big)

Not as good as others have shared but really chuffed you can see some detail coming through although a little faint & probably not completely in focus.

[Kon]

Very nice images. I think some of the best I have seen from you. Your Mars is showing nice clouds as well.

[Space Cowboy]

Good detail on those! You can't be far out with the focusing this time.

 

 

 

[yelsac]

On 08/01/2023 at 17:34, Kon said:

Very nice images. I think some of the best I have seen from you. Your Mars is showing nice clouds as well.

Appreciate the comment 👍

[yelsac]

23 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

Good detail on those! You can't be far out with the focusing this time.

 

 

 

I did have a tinker with the collimation (repositioned the secondary mirror)over the holidays so maybe that helped, thanks for your help 👍

[yelsac]

On 08/01/2023 at 17:34, Kon said:

Very nice images. I think some of the best I have seen from you. Your Mars is showing nice clouds as well.

 

On 08/01/2023 at 18:10, Space Cowboy said:

Good detail on those! You can't be far out with the focusing this time.

 

 

 

Just wondered how you guys go about focusing? 🤔 Trying to get some tips

When you focus in say firecapture do you enlarge the planet to say 150%+? Also do you increase or decrease the gain to just to help with seeing to focus? 

[Kon]

46 minutes ago, yelsac said:

 

Just wondered how you guys go about focusing? 🤔 Trying to get some tips

When you focus in say firecapture do you enlarge the planet to say 150%+? Also do you increase or decrease the gain to just to help with seeing to focus? 

I use Asicap but that should not matter; I am tracking and focusing manually so focusing is quite a tedious process. I tend to focus on the planet every couple of captures or as the seeing is changing. I use a 640x480 ROI and try to get it as sharp as I can there. I use a higher gain duirng focusing but drop it later for the capture. I do not zoom on the planet. My approach is to defocus a bit and then try to bring it back to focus and move back/forwards from there. If I feel that it is not good, i defocus again and start all over. It works for me and others might have a different technique.

As I am getting more experienced, I abandon captures if the planet is 'boiling' due to jetstream or currents as you cannot get a focus and it looks soft on the screen. Saying that, there occasions that the jestream or windy conditions may have a constant speed that do not affect seeing as much so unless you get out it is hard to just look at charts alone.

[Space Cowboy]

1 hour ago, yelsac said:

 

Just wondered how you guys go about focusing? 🤔 Trying to get some tips

When you focus in say firecapture do you enlarge the planet to say 150%+? Also do you increase or decrease the gain to just to help with seeing to focus? 

Having a laptop with an OLED screen helps a lot! If you don't have that luxury I'd make sure your screen contrast is set properly. Might be worth using the dummy cam in firecapture which plays some live planetary footage and then fiddle with your screen settings to get the best view.

I do increase zoom by 150% and have the image in colour while focusing to give the best contrast.Frame rate to max. I only raise gain if I'm imaging Jupiter and need to use a moon to focus with if seeing is not good enough for focusing on surface detail or it's the "boring side".

Twerk focus every 10 mins or so. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Space Cowboy

[geoflewis]

Very nice images, excellent work

Edited January 11, 2023 by geoflewis