Mars, Feb 19th, good seeing

[Starman]

Conditions were pretty steady tonight and despite the planet's shrinking size, there's still plenty of detail to be had. The orographic clouds over the Martian volcanoes were particularly impressive tonight.

[JCJC]

Amazing Pete, such great detail.

Jordan

[neil phillips]

Nearly knocked me off my chair that Pete, Stunning no other word for it. clouds are prominent

[resonator77]

wow

I see it is winter on Mars

[Astroscot2]

Fantastic detail Peter!

[moocher]

Wow!!!!

Alan:)

[kev]

Nice pic Peter

[AztecastroMcJ]

great detail

James

[Rob]

Super image Pete, very nice. I myself were out between 10 and 12.30 here in Warsash.. super seeing even more so with the new Skywatcher 200P DS, that over sized secondary is a god send. Very nice details which were nice and bright. Your image reinforces what I viewed thanks.

Regards

Rob

[Starman]

Thanks for all the comments. Here's a final version from this set with the channels displayed...

[NickH]

That's (IMHO) one of your best for this season...superb!

[JCJC]

I'll 2nd that, just amazing detail.

Jordan.

[russ]

Incredible image, incredible detail, incredible image scale, incredible colour......just plain incredible. Best Mars image i've seen for 2009/2010.

Russ

[Darth Takahashi]

Fantastic Mars images.. really great but where the hell are you imaging Mars from?

It seems to me that you much be in Chile, in the Atacama desert or something! Where are you finding such good seeing??? I'd love to know!!!

Neil - in Holland at bl**dy sea level or a few meters above it?

[Starman]

Hi Neil,

I'm on the south coast of the UK a few metres above sea level or, as is the way with Selsey, sometimes in the sea!

[Starman]

And thanks Russ and everyone for such kind words

[DarkerSky]

That is super Pete. I agree with Russ that is the best image of Mars I've seen this season. I was out that evening too and saw a fair amount of the detail you've got there. The shape of the NPC and the 'gap' in the dark material at the eastern limb, plus the bright area on the northeast limb really fascinated me that night.

[Darth Takahashi]

Hi Neil,

I'm on the south coast of the UK a few metres above sea level or, as is the way with Selsey, sometimes in the sea!

I give up!!! I can't believe that your so close to me, as the bird flies but are getting much better seeing conditions! Saturday 20/02/2010 was my best night so far this year but I couldn't push my Mewlon past F18 and that was at approx 01:30, so technically already Sunday.

I'm using a cheap and cheerful Philips SPC900 web-cam, but still I cant get anywhere near F67!!! So how do you do it? Or what is it I'm doing wrong..!

Neil.

[Jupiter Martin]

Another Beaut image Pete

[JAO]

simply stunning, thanks for sharing

Adrian

[daz]

Selsey has it's own micro-climate, I can assure you !!!

Plus Pete's knowledge of this imaging game and skills in processing are 2nd to none!!

Another stunning image....

[Starman]

Thanks again for the comments - this image in particular seems to have been well received across the board. Just shows what good seeing can do for you. It even got a mention on this weeks Picture of the Week announcement

Daz is right - Selsey has it's own micro-climate due to the fact that it's rapidly disappearing under the sea

Actually that's not true but bits are subject to rapid erosion. The seeing becomes steady for me if the prevailing air flow is from the south-west, i.e. over the sea. If there's a northerly component (as was the case for many of the preceding images I've posted) the air has to travel over land and Selsey Town. This leads to turbulence and the view often goes to mush.

[dc509]

stunning and inspiring