First Mars last night

[jonathancd]

First clear night here in ages and I was determined to have a go at imaging Mars given that it is now at its best.

Only my second go using my snc900 webcam so lots of trial and error trying to get the focus and exposure right (very tricky). Astrocapture was used for capture and registax5 for stacking. It is a stack of the best 500 out of 700 frames.

This was taken with my Skymax 127 on a nexstar SE mount using a 2.5x GSO apo barlow giving a 3750mm focal length which was the most my seeing and aperture would allow.

Really pleased as its my first go at Mars and shows that you can get a reasonable reult with relatively modest aperture.

hope you like it.

thanks

Jonathan

[Clayton]

Very nice Jonathan

[resonator77]

nice one

what is your location Jonathan?

[jonathancd]

Hello,

I am in NE London. Lots of light pollution but thankfully that does not effect the planets. The air seemd quite still last night and there was a bit of mist so I think the seeing was probably pretty good but I am not great at telling these things!

thanks

Jonathan

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice work. Very good first go at Mars.

[omneferuss]

Hey, I'm impressed ! My first try last night too.. 150 Newt' + 2.5 Barlow... You got more scale and detail in yours !

Looks to me like it might need a lil RGB aligning in Registax.. going by the blue halo at the pole and yellow halo opposite... could add to an already very nice capture

[Space Cowboy]

Great image! Desperate to have a go with my Skymax 127 but Cheshire has been under a blanket of cloud for nearly 2 weeks now. Did you use any filters?

[jonathancd]

Thanks for the RGB align tip will try that when I get home tonight. Still getting to grips with registax, a few too many tweaking options for me!

On the filters point. I just used the baader neodymium filter, which helps boost contrast and has the added advantage of IR cut too.

Thanks for the comments.

Jonathan

[resonator77]

I dont think Baader Neodymium is an IR cut, it is recommended to use IR/UV cut baader filter along side Neodymium.

[omneferuss]

I dont think Baader Neodymium is an IR cut, it is recommended to use IR/UV cut baader filter along side Neodymium.

that's correct. It's the Fringe-killer that also has IR-cut.

A UV/IR-cut filter will likely help.. might even be a small factor in remedy for those fringes in the image.. reduce the dispersion of RGB somewhat.

[jonathancd]

The newer neodymium filters (aka moon and skyglow) do have a IR cur which is rather hand for planetary imaging.

I think you are right though that this was not part of the original spec and it is worth people checking before use.

thanks

Jonathan

[jonathancd]

I notice though that UV light is let through and I shall certainly use wit the meade UV/IR filter I have if we get clear skies to image Mars at the weekend.

thanks

Jonathan

[omneferuss]

Well, that's news to me. I only recently d/l'd a few PDF's from Baader to determine some bandpass combinations with various colour filters... verrrry interestink!

I wonder if they market it as M&S II to differentiate it from its predecessor ?

cheers