Mars 26th July is that a dust storm?

[netwolf]

Have yet to process all but this was the last 5min stack i did 60k frames of which 30% stacked. There i S shaped white thing between 7 and 8 oclock is this a dust storm? or Phobos moving across?

Captured with Mak 180 Skywatcher Gold on Evo mount with ASI224MC

Stacked in AS wavelets in R6 and some decon etc in Astraimage.

[foc (Ross)]

Nice shot,

Can not help with the possible moon but keen to see the final image.

In Canberra over Woden the white things have been clouds for the last few days!

Ross

[Bushy69 (Justin)]

Great pic.

I think if anything, more detail emerging over last week or so than from a month ago. Possibly the dust easing?

I have the same scope, consider using a 2x barlow as bigger image is essentially more pixels being used on your camera chip. Mars is bright enough that the drop in light levels is not an issue. From experience you lose some contrast, but I feel the resolution gain is worth the trade off.

Cheers,

Justin

[netwolf]

Thx Ross/Justin,

Yes was tempted to use a barlow, but it was getting bellow 60 degrees and wobling a bit and thought just better to get 1x 5min multiple videos. Maybe tonight. In between jobs and looking for work so good timing to get imaging. I have been out more nights this year than the past two years.
Last night went with balcony which is limited to west and bellow 60deg. In my backyard i can do at zenith which i did on Sat/Sunday night, Sat visual for visitors and Sun imaging. But had this strange feeling my neighbour was staring over the fence about midnight. Guess he has to work the next day. Anyways to cold in back yard until i sort out a usb 3 hub and extension. I have so much data to process over several nighst, but last nights Mars seems quiet good. Im running out of hdd space. Almost upto 1tb now. Using PIPP to reduce file size by cropping down. Have to go bigger ROI as getting drift due to imbalance in scope and poor alignments.

[netwolf]

Definitely more detail in past week than before.

[foc (Ross)]

Hi Fahim,
Good luck with your job hunting, you need a rest from imaging now and then after all!

Looks clear tonight here until around 10pm and low winds for a change but Jetstream running in the order of 80 ks. Tomorrow the Jetstream is half the speed but it may be clouded out here. So it seems you may get a lot more images than me even with your job search.

I just bought a 2 terabyte portable hard drive to assist with storage b/w processing. Also helps for family photos and the like.

Of course you are only hearing from a beginner here but I agree with the issue of larger ROI when tracking imprecise. Often find I need to capture Mars with Firecapture's default Jupiter's ROI setting otherwise I suspect I lose more with frequent tracking corrections than I gain with the faster capture and smaller file sizes. I should have another go at training the drive. Mind you tracking seemed brilliant on Tuesday but the 30 knot winds then considerably reduced that advantage.

I have done 5 minute Mars captures at times but 5 minutes seems a little longer than many do for Mars with scopes of your capacity to resolve, is this to allow for interruptions after which you trim in PIPP or some such? Or do you think that as Mars's rotation is 24 hours you should be able to image for 2.5 times the capture time that is ideal for modest sized scopes with Jupiter and its 10 hr rotation?

Back to the Dust storm issue, did you see the recent post today of a new Mars dust storm on Cloudy nights. Perhaps you made a amateur worlds first observation!

[netwolf]

Ross I normally do 3mins but read 5 to 7 is ok for Mars. Even for Saturn initially I was limiting to 2mins but I saw some nice images on CN 4min stacks then 4 of those derotated in Winjupos. looked amazing you loose some finer detail on surface but if seeing is not good best then better to go more and get other features sharp. will try to find it.


https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/5...iefrustration/
see Last post In that thread. some good tips.

[TareqPhoto (Tareq)]

Nice shot!


I really can't wait to get a Powermate 2x which i ordered to use with this scope, i hate all my planetary images with the native Mak, it forced me to think about a large reflector maybe a Dob or Newtonian or even SCT, but very large SCT is very expensive compared to larger Dob/Newt, but i hope this 2x can put me on right place for a while before i buy something else.


Is that dust storm gone or still there?

[netwolf]

Tareq my native is f15 2700mm and I do ok at that on most nights. I have 5x powermat only use with refractor. I use 2c celestron and 3x Tal. wishlist for 2.5x pm. But my mate has one maybe il borrow it.