Mars is here!

[Roberto]

My first image of Mars in quite a while!  Taken Monday dawn in above average seeing as the high pressure system moved over SE England.   Details of the acquisition are at the link below:

https://www.astrobin.com/y1nltx/E/

It was imaged using a 10" f/20 Maksutov and a ZWO ASI462MC CMOS OSC camera at 142 frames per second.  1,500 frames stacked out of 30,000 taken.   

I hope the seeing cooperates later in the month and into October for closest approach.

Roberto

[Carole]

I saw this on Astrobin.  Great detail Roberto.

Carole

[Roberto]

Thank you Carole!

I managed to extract a little bit from the data (in my view but maybe I'm squinting...) and finished with the below:

[Carole]

The new version looks smoother.

Carole

[RobertM]

Excellent work Roberto, that AP Mak is a great scope.

May be I'm squinting as well but I also think there is a bit more teased out of the second image.  I'll be trying Mars myself when I get back from hols.

Robert

[Roberto]

Thank you Carole, Robert.  Robert it's a TEC Mak, I wish I had the AP!  Enjoy your break 

Roberto

[MarkS]

That's a fantastic image.  Lots of detail.  The seeing must have been good.

Mark

[Roberto]

Thank you Mark - difficult to put a reference on seeing as I have not observed the planets in literally years because they are so low over the horizon.  I would say it was above average.  I'm hoping for equal or better conditions for early October when the planet will be more illuminated.

Roberto

[The Thing]

That is fantastic Roberto, the detail is amazing. Seeing must have been very good. I have done a lot of Mars images over the years and also intend to set up for planetary when I get home. My old Meade 8" SCT can't compete with this though and you've done a great job with the colour. Shame the other planets are at such woeful altitudes this year. Did you use an ADC?

[Roberto]

Thank you! Yes, I did have an ADC in the imaging train. There was some dispersion but it was easily corrected - some 5/7 px at that focal length (0.11"/px). Fingers crossed for good seeing - maybe some this weekend- and we can compare images!

Roberto

[Hugh]

Lovely picture Roberto

Good to see one of the planets back on the Forum!

Hugh

[Roberto]

Thank you Hugh!  Yes, with Jupiter and Saturn so low, it's nice to have Mars high(er) in the sky.

Roberto

[Roberto]

More Mars....

Taken early in the morning of 22 September.  Same equipment but slightly better seeing:

(01:37UT - 7% of 30,000 - resized 150%)



(01:45UT - 5 frames de-rotated and stacked in WinJupos)



(02:00UT - 3 frames de-rotated and stacked in WinJupos)



Animation of the 5 frames from the second image:



What hopefully should be visible in the above...



Roberto

[RobertM]

Those are really excellent Mars images, great capture.

Robert

[Roberto]

Thank you Robert!

I added a bit of colour saturation to the last stack.

Roberto