Mars in SPX350 at F34.9.

[johnh]

EQ6, SPX350 F34.9, DMK, Astrodon filters. 5xPM with extensions.

My first attempt at Mars at opposition at 13.89" wide. My scope was not perfectly collimated and seeing was good but not great. Gain around 600, RG 27fps, B 13fps for 1min each. Stacked 95% quality with Reg5.

Neil P kindly gave my data his treatment.

First image is Neil's process.

Second image is my process.

Neil Phillips gave my RGB a much better process with his experience, clearly I have much to learn. Don't know which image you prefer but I like Neil's as albedo detail is raised more with polar detail and better Mars colour.

Thanks, JohnH.

[neil phillips]

Hi John First off great image, and your first real Mars this season well what a entry, Superb is not a understatement in the least.

Its interesting seeing both renditions side by side, Very interesting to me ( from a processing standpoint ) the image you sent me was compressed somewhat in my mobile net transer, Here i can clearly see your processing better, which looks much better than the compressed version i saw earlier.

Its a interesting comparison, yours is showing more fine detail in certain places, and mine is showing more detail in other places, the albedo statement seems right, Its interesting in other ways, i get obsessed by noise i hate it, yet i can see in my pursuit of noise reduction i may have lost a little detail that yours posseses, But its noiser for sure to achieve that,

Other areas, my image does seem to be showing more most notably The NPC and areas around syrtis and the south top of the planet. I do think if had let a little more noise in, i may have actually kept some more of the detail that seems missing compared to yours, But as stated i hate noise, though after seeing yours i can see there is a price to pay for the smoothness i tried to achieve. Actually makes me want to go back and re do it again john, lol OCD astronomy disorder.

Im always trying to learn and refine my own technique here John so this excercise has taught me much, notably that often no matter how well executed noise reduction of any kind ( even frequency domain ) can squash fine detail a little. So maybe i will attempt to do that a little less in the future, Not sure ? need to think about this. But i think both renditions look good, yours is certainly well done.

The NPC is showing changes that have occured since i last imaged, and images i saw from Petes,

I can see what looks like a red dust cloud over the NPC at the back, it could be a colour align problem, im not sure ? but i dont think it is, will be interesting john to study this, reprocessing two different shots paying close attention to colour align, to see if it still holds true, but i can see it, its red at the back of the NPC.

Of note also it looks to me like the dust cloud is splitting in two, breaking up with what looks like a hole in the middle, Difficult to be certain on any of this because of the difficultys of imaging Mars such small size, and processing flaws can often affect shape and structure.

But if confirmed, i think your image certainly shows the cloud breaking up, and possibly splitting in two, it helps to take the image on say analyzer and blow it up for a real close look. Just did that, and thats what i can see.

Well captured and processed John superb result.

[Tim]

Beautiful John, you seem to have mastered all sides of this imaging lark

[moocher]

Superb!!!!!

Alan:)

[AndyH]

Nice !

Not too shabby for a first attempt.

Andy.

[Jupiter Martin]

They are both excellent images and really shows in the difference on processing by different people. Great job

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Really neat! Great detail.

[brianb]

Nice work! Must say that I actually prefer your processing, the (inevitable) imaging artifacts are less obvious.

[arad85]

Superb image (either process).

[MikeD]

Fantasic result, very nice scale and detail with your setup.

Mike.

[Scott Tilley]

Gosh, fantasic detail, really like this one!

Scott