Mars

[The Thing]

I am amazed that I can discern Vales Marineris just below the middle, the long dark sqiggle!

10% of 3000 frames capture with Firecapture.

Image date, time and location:   2025-02-02 20:00, Manche, France
Telescope aperture and focal ratio:   Teleskop Service Classic Cassegrain (GSO) 8" f12
Camera and filters used:   ZWO ASI678 with 2u pixels
Processing applied:   Planetary System Stacker, Lucky Stack Worker

[Carole]

Any alink to a larger version Duncan?

[The Thing]

That's as it stacks Carole, enlarging generally doesn't work well with planetary images in my experience. It's correct relative to the Jupiter & Io I just posted.

[The Thing]

There you go Carole.

[Dave A]

Duncan
Nice capture
I like the way the colours and shadows stand out- especially vales Marineris

[The Thing]

Thanks Dave. Your Mars on the gallery is superb btw.

There are some artefacts I'm not happy with but the details surprised me, vindicates buying a pre-loved Classic Cassegrain and then spending half as much again on a collimation tool.

I couldn't use the ADC even though it's fitted as I can't go out in the cold due to ongoing medical treatment. That would improve things more. Also my old NEQ6 vibrates a tiny bit despite SKF bearings and belt drive. I'm going to workout how to use my AM3 (scope etc al. is 10kg so possible) which is a vast improvement.

[Carole]

Crikey, a vibrating NEQ6?????
I wonder why?

[The Thing]

Crikey, a vibrating NEQ6?????
I wonder why?

Really tiny vibrations from the stepper motor and worm gear don't affect long exposure deep sky images but are big enough to add jitter to long focal length extremely short 200-500fps planetary images. Manifests as noise.

My HEQ5 is better and I've used it with my Meade SCT in the past but I'd need to swap it over in the obsy but it's far too cold for me to contemplate. The AM3 needs a counterweight and pier extension to go on the pier, I'm working on it.