Did Mercury first, then Jupiter and Saturn, and Mars later on. Mercury I struggled with it getting distorted by the atmosphere being low in the sky. Saturn and Jupiter were almost right overhead. Mars I wanted to get Syrtis Major, being the last chance for a few weeks. That meant after 5 am and it was already too low, also getting distorted by the atmosphere. Actually last night you probably could have got all of the planets in one night.
Thanks Leon, I managed to get some sleep before Mars. I probably missed the good seeing for Mars but Syrtis Major wasn't there then anyway. Some good seeing around tonight too, this is Jupiter and Io about an hour ago:
Nice images Nick, I had a crack at Mercury too with very similar results to yours. I reckon Mars might handle a bit more sharpening, to really bring out the differences between the light and dark areas, otherwise really good images.
Thanks Andrew, yes Mercury is a tricky one being low in the sky. Had much better seeing conditions for Mars last night, just about perfect. The clouds even stayed out of the way for me and there was zero wind, it was really good. Even while I was filming I could see clouds on the East and West sides of Mars as well as the clouds over the North Pole, and they came up in the pic too. It looks like 2 patches of clouds on the right, I think they would be around the Olympus Mons/Volcanoes area. Bet they would look good with a C14. Although not my favourite side of Mars, it's what was on offer and ends up being one of my best Mars pics:
Thanks Marc and Chrys, yes the Io one surprised me but that's what really good seeing conditions can do. Chrys it started as a Skywatcher Classic 250P 10 inch solid tube manual dobsonian. I soon found I needed tracking so I converted it with the GoTo/synscan upgrade kit. I also upgraded the finderscope to a 9x50 with illuminated reticle, and swapped out the standard focuser for a dual speed focuser. Camera is a Canon 60D DSLR. Pic of a Saturn from last night:
