Shrinking Mars Jan 21st 2023

[Space Cowboy]

Set up in the snow for a quick session. Mainly to test the crayford focus adapter I'd stolen from my refractor which works great with the laser collimator and also to try out the firecapture auto planet ROI centering feature which I'd only just become aware of (works great!).

Took a couple of Mars shots before the cold got to my feet. Seeing wasn't great.

20.09 ut and 20.27 ut:

 

[Cozzy]

17 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

firecapture auto planet ROI centering feature which I'd only just become aware of (works great!).

Very nice images, just out of interest, what focal length were you shooting at and what scope did you use?

I found out about the  firecapture auto planet ROI centering feature about  a week before Xmas when I was thinking about getting back to doing some planetary imaging which I have not done for a long, long time. the software is great and certainly moved on a bit since I last used something like this . 

[Kon]

Great images Stuart. It has gotten much smaller since I last imaged it. It seems the ROI feature is working nicely. I will try next time I am out.

[Space Cowboy]

5 hours ago, Cozzy said:

Very nice images, just out of interest, what focal length were you shooting at and what scope did you use?

I found out about the  firecapture auto planet ROI centering feature about  a week before Xmas when I was thinking about getting back to doing some planetary imaging which I have not done for a long, long time. the software is great and certainly moved on a bit since I last used something like this . 

Thanks Cozzy. The scope is the 250 auto tracking DOB in my signature. According to firecapture the fl was 5400mm at f21 which seems a bit high to me as the same setup normally produces f18 ish. Possibly the different focus adapter I'm using has changed things.

Likewise I'd been away from planetary for a few years and hadn't been overly familiar with all firecaptures features. The auto centering is a huge help for keeping the ROI as small as possible. I was able to reduce from 300x300 to 200x200 very easily which reduces file size by almost half. 

 

[Space Cowboy]

5 hours ago, Kon said:

Great images Stuart. It has gotten much smaller since I last imaged it. It seems the ROI feature is working nicely. I will try next time I am out.

Cheers Kostas! Will be interesting to see how the ROI centering helps your manual tracking. Certainly a game changer for me especially when Jupiter comes around again to keep the ROI smaller and the frame rate higher.

[geoflewis]

Nice work Stuart. I've tried a couple of times recently, but the seeing has been dreadful on the few occasions its been clear, so unfortunately nothing to share.

[Space Cowboy]

14 hours ago, geoflewis said:

Nice work Stuart. I've tried a couple of times recently, but the seeing has been dreadful on the few occasions its been clear, so unfortunately nothing to share.

Thanks Geof. I went out again last night and seeing was horrid so I used the session to try and get my head around firecaptures planetary auto centering ROI features. Took me a while to figure out how to reposition the ROI after always having it stay in the top left corner.