First ever Mars with point & shoot!!

[Space Cowboy]

Took this last night with my skymax 127 and digi cam. Stacked best 27 individual shots with registax. Actually got some detail which considering how hard i'm finding Mars to view through the eyepiece is a bonus. Will try the webcam next time.

[greenkat]

Nice result

[barkis]

This a wonderful result, and you are to be commended.

This will encourage more to use their P&S cameras.

Ron.

[omneferuss]

Another nice image from a smallish aperture, and from a digicam too.. was it afocal with eyepiece ?

I'm quite impressed by these Mak' images!

cheers

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks for your generous comments guys! This is indeed an afocal image using universal camera adapter clamped to a 32mm super plossl eyepiece plus 2x barlow and star diagonal. I used the 3x zoom on my Acer digital camera. Tried less zoom but images were too small to distinguish any detail. My only previous planet imaging experience has been with Jupiter and I discovered Mars needs a faster shutter speed (1/30) had exposure set at -2. Realised afterwards that saturation had been set at maximum..not sure if that was a good thing?

After stacking single shot images in Registax I sharpened the final image using the free editing program Paint.NET. Sharpening using the wavelet settings on Registax caused the image to crumble even though I used similar settings to one of the Mars processing tutorials.

Will try using filters next time (tonight fingers crossed) as I have orange and light blue. This may work for the camera's video streaming as it can only be used with auto settings giving a completely overexposed result.

I did try the camera's 3 focus settings for single shots (auto, landscape and macro) all seemed to produce similar results. its a shame there is no manual focus option as none of the auto settings properly focus the image.

[omneferuss]

I just now see the webcam in your sig. Try that too!

If you have a suitable 25mm EP you might gain a lil image-scale, but it sounds like the auto settings of the digicam are your greatest bane atm.. it'll be interesting to see if the filters help.

cheers

[Space Cowboy]

Tried the filters last night but it was a total failure as the sky was hazy at first and by the time it was crystal clear everything had frosted over so i had a bunch of fuzzy images! Will try webcam next time. Not tried the 25mm EP but had best results in the past with 2 stacked barlows plus the 32mm. Got one barlow taped to the webcam while i wait for a proper nose adapter to arrive (lost in post from pulstar optical).

Here is a cropped version of Mars image (nearer its actual size) Also rotated so ice cap is on top.

[Space Cowboy]

Sorry correction it's scope & skies NOT pulstar optical

[LukeSkywatcher]

Great result for a simple setup. Very inspiring. It makes me want to lug the 90EQ outside and hook my digicam up using my adapter (still in the box). Just cant get those views at the EP.

[Clayton]

Good result from a small aperture and small stack!

[Space Cowboy]

Thanks again guys!

[teethgrinder]

brilliant! is the universal adaptor any particular brand? hard to set up?

[LukeSkywatcher]

brilliant! is the universal adaptor any particular brand? hard to set up?

No particular brand. They do come in 2 sizes (small or large) so you need to know what will fit your P&S. You just clamp them onto the EP of your scope and adjust the distance.............you are good to go.