First Mars ever - Experimental setup

[johankj]

Quite pleased with this one.

Waited ages for clear skies, and it looks like this will be the only one this year. Seeing was ok.

Taken with SW127MAK and a Canon 1000D. Experimenting with EOS Movie recorder.

Stacked in Registax5. Still an imaging noob, so I really don't know what I'm doing.

Does anyone know where/how I can find out what Mars was supposed to look like? Like a simulator or something.

Praise, questions, suggestions, and so on, warmly welcome.

[Jupiter Martin]

Thats ok you got Mare Acadilum Mare Erythaeum and the pole so some good detail in it.

Theres a mars previewer if you google it you should find it its a free download

[johankj]

Thats ok you got Mare Acadilum Mare Erythaeum and the pole so some good detail in it.

Theres a mars previewer if you google it you should find it its a free download

Cheers Martin

Will google show what the face looks like at any given time? This is what I was looking for, so that I know what I'm looking at after processing. Starry Night does this, as I found out, totally by chance.

Maybe it will be clear tonight, so I can try my Neximage + barlow (+ brand new UV/IR) for comparison. Fingers crossed.

[Jupiter Martin]

yea it should show you exactly what you should be seeing at any time from your location

[themos]

Stellarium will also show rotating features on Mars.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice experiment, got some detail there (better than my first attempt with 800 ASA film using a Contax RTS-II in the distant past). I would recommend getting a CCD-based webcam (CMOS chips which are rather common have a lower sensitivity) such as the Philips SPC900, or the more or less equivalent Celestron Neximage, which has the same CCD chip. They are quite affordable (EUR 145 over here in NL). For planetary work you do not need the massive pixel count of the DSLR, in fact, this pixel count just inflates the data bulk, without getting better results.

Cheers

Michael

[johankj]

yea it should show you exactly what you should be seeing at any time from your location

Did a copy-pasta out of Starry Night, looks okay...

[johankj]

Stellarium will also show rotating features on Mars.

Didn't know that, thanks for the tip Will check it out.

[johankj]

Nice experiment, got some detail there (better than my first attempt with 800 ASA film using a Contax RTS-II in the distant past). I would recommend getting a CCD-based webcam (CMOS chips which are rather common have a lower sensitivity) such as the Philips SPC900, or the more or less equivalent Celestron Neximage, which has the same CCD chip. They are quite affordable (EUR 145 over here in NL). For planetary work you do not need the massive pixel count of the DSLR, in fact, this pixel count just inflates the data bulk, without getting better results.

Cheers

Michael

Thanks Michael,

I used EOS Camera Movie Recorder to record short clips, not single shots of Mars. It was really easy to work with, because you saw the whole sensor, but you can zoom into an area of interest and only record that (15-25 fps). Clips are recorded in 792x768. I've attached what a single frame looks like.

I have a Neximage, but the weather has turned for the worse. But i will do a comparison if I get clear skies again.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Still, the CMOS chip of the DSLR is does not have the sensitivity of a CCD. The main problem of CMOS sensors is their low fill-factor (fraction of surface area sensitive to light) of about 50-60%, vs 90-100% for CCDs.

[johankj]

Still, the CMOS chip of the DSLR is does not have the sensitivity of a CCD. The main problem of CMOS sensors is their low fill-factor (fraction of surface area sensitive to light) of about 50-60%, vs 90-100% for CCDs.

Since planets are such bright object, I did not find the lower sensitivity a problem. In fact, the best clips were recorded in ISO100 (less noise).

I'm not sure what you mean by fill factor, do you mean that there is more wasted space between each pixel?