Mars 20th Jan.....

[Kokatha man]

Hi all, I've been bound up with my "Gyro Gearloose" mad inventor's antics of late, as well as waiting for an opportune time to image Mars again.....

As I've already commented, the boot's on the other foot now with Mars as opposed to last year's Jupiter vis a vis you Northern Hemi fellas and us down here in Southern (especially!) Australia.....but I guess what goes around comes around, as they say....!

Yesterday morning I shot some Mars images.....I'm thinking perhaps the first 2 avi's might've been the best seeing as the histo was rock steady - but I hadn't gotten my eye in for focus and went inside for a few minutes whilst it was in capture (a bit arrogant I know, but my tracking had been fine prior) and it went offscreen after only about 2000 frames.....the second avi was struck with clouds coming over and I had to wait 3/4 of an hour to recommence imaging....!

I originally got a bit over-enthused and thought seeing must've been up around 8/10, but on reflection the fact that despite swapping between a 2X and 3X barlow with various amount of extension tube that was producing between f25 and f50 I couldn't get an image scale above about f30 where the onscreen image was good enough to allow for reasonable focus.....

This would seem to confirm that seeing was probably no more than 7.5/10 maximum.....and of course Mars was only about 35 degrees elevation.

Still, I'm reasonably happy with the image outcome.....this is a pretty simple processing which may or may not yield more/better results with another attempt.....there is a small patch of cloud on the receding limb, and other dispersed widely - over M Acidalum and the sunlit limb area. (this I thought when loking onscreen during capture was just sunlight at first, but as I scrupulously kept my histogram to a maximum of about 80% I quickly realized its cloud nature.....also a little of the definition showing lately in the Northern Ice Cap.

I've included a straight screenshot from Registax of a single frame from the avi.....nothing done except pasted into CS3 and turned into a jpeg - so there'd be a slight degradation; but it was good when imaging to be able to make out the Oxus and Indus extensions of Oxia Palus to assist me in focussing.

[tinvek]

wow good job

[arad85]

Great shot KM... What does it look like at original size (or is the single shot from the avi upscaled)

[russ]

That's incredible detail. Can't get over your single frame and how much detail is in there....wow.

Russ

[Kokatha man]

Thanks fellas.....arad, that is the size of the image (running at a smidgin over 3X with a tv 2X barlow and extension tube.)

As it is just a ScreenHunter screenshot of my pc screen that has been jpg'd so I could post it, you'll appreciate it got slightly degraded from how I saw it in Registax.....I'd like to do a few more processings of this (the 3rd) and the 5th avi from the 10 I got that morning to see if I can wring any more out without over-cooking the image.....as you'd appreciate, the fine nuances of seeing difference as well as the constant re-focussing every couple of avi captures inevitably means 1 or 2 avi's are gunna end up as the best.....which in this session I'm pretty certain were numbers 3 & 5....!

[Towa]

That's a stunner, amazing detail.

[Doc]

Detail is astonishing.

[Jupiter Martin]

Super Detail

[Space Cowboy]

Brilliant image! Clearly the Aussies are better imagers than cricketers!

[AndrewT]

I have to agree the aussies are better imagers than cricketers lol:icon_salut: no seriously that is a great image.

[legion48]

That really is a belter!.

[neil phillips]

Really nice and vivid that, love your processing, contrasty and real

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Amazing shot:icon_salut:, make me fret even more under this cloudy sky

Cheers

Michael

[johnh]

Another top class result KM.

John.

[Beyond_Vision]

Another great image KM , the detail is superb

Regards

Kevin

[astroman001]

Great image, I like the processing.

regards

Peter

[Ben478]

Just to repeat the other comments, that really is a great image! I observed Mars for the very first time the other night with my Skywatcher and a barlow lens on a 10mm EP. I was unfortunately slightly dissappointed as I expected to see more, but I imagine the not-so-good weather had a part to play and I guess I need a 3mm or 4mm EP for better viewing. Still, an absolutely cracking shot you have there!

[Clayton]

Great shot Darryl. Loads of detail

[Brunty12345]

top class image =]

[james335k]

It's been said before and I'll say it again. Incredible!!

[Kokatha man]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.....we just got back from a small trip in our van (not the bush journeys we partake of) and imaging was meant to be an afterthought.....but I got some data I think is quite okay and will post later: had a wonderfull lesson on the difference between seeing and transparency on the second night....!

Ben, I've never found eyeball obbing coming anywhere near to what you create by stacking etc when imaging with a cam.....some quite nice views at times but nothing in comparison - at least through the C11 even at around 700-odd X - although I will admit that my imaging addiction doesn't have me looking and waiting long enough at the ep to let my eyes become truly adapted and also to develope that quality that frequent long obbing produces to greatly assists your ability to discern detail.....something that sketchers have the priviledge of experiencing: I too quick to bung the camera in when I see the image is pretty okay....!