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Marvellous Mars - 10th Feb

michaelmorris

By michaelmorris
in Observing - Planetary

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michaelmorris

michaelmorris

Posted
Posted

I've just finished a truly marvellous evening of observing and imaging the Red Planet. I'm just burning my AVIs of Mars on to DVDs as back ups (3 x DVDs worth of AVIs) and whilst that's going on, I thought I'd share my experience with you.

I started off by quickly tweaking the collimation on my 8" LX200 to make sure I got the best views possible. For once the seeing was excellent (II on the Antoniada scale) and the sky was mostly very clear. There was the odd cloud scudding about and a slight breeze.

I started by trying out the 2 x Meade 4000 6.4mm plossl I picked up at Astrofest for a song in my binoviewers. What a lovely clear, rock steady view. Loads of detail around the northern polar cap and some fine detail visible in the Hyblaeous region. Adding a Baader neodymium filter enhanced the contrast nicely. Another Astrofest bargain was a Meade 4000 #56 green filter. This brought out the area around the northern polar cap very well – a great buy.

(The first of the DVDs is now finished verifying)

I then made one of my best Mars sketches ever based on this wonderful view. (it’s a Mike Morris sketch – so even a ‘good’ one still looks like it came last in a painting competition for 6 year olds).

I then moved on to trying to image Mars. I hooked up my colour and mono-chipped Toucam Pro IIs to the LX200 though a 4 x Barlow to get some nice AVIs which I’ll try to get around to processing some time before the end of next week.

(The second of the DVDs is now started verifying)

I took the colour images through an IR/UV cut filter and most of the mono images through an IR Pass filter to use as luminance layers. I’ve also just tried my first attempt at true(ish) LRGB imaging. I put the IR cut filter on the mono Toucam then loaded 80A (blue) 56 (green) and 21 (orange) filters into the Lumicon filter slide I picked up second-hand at Kelling Heath this year. I don’t possess a red filter so I thought I’d compare the orange and IR pass filters to see which makes the R layer.

(Just started burning the last DVD)

I took 1000 frames with each filter then quickly swapped the IR cut for an IR pass filter and took a 3000 frame AVI for use as the L (luminance) layer. The temperature has been plummeting through out the session and, despite 3,000,000 layers of clothing, the cold finally stopped being funny and I pulled the roof over on the observatory. I’ll finish off the sketch tonight then it’ll be off to the land of nod in the knowledge that my AVIs are safely backed-up.

(The last DVD has just finished burning).

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russ

russ

Posted
Posted

That sounds a wonderful night Mike, like everything just fell into place nicely. Interesting what you said about the 6.4mm 4000's. That gives approx 370-380 in the SCT (taking into account the extra 20% added for moving the primary so far) and perfect for Mars. Hmm.......better keep my eyes peeled for something similar to pop in my viewers.

The wind was playing havoc down my way so i could not keep the view still in the SCT and had no choice but pack up. But wrenching as earlier in the evening there was no wind and the view already looked very good.....darn it!

Look forward to seeing your images and drawings. I'll be handing my drawings to my 6 year old son so he can produce a final version for me.

Russ

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