Mars attacks! (...Brisbane)

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Folks,

We had a nice night of decent seeing in Brisbane last night, and armed with my trusty C11 and ASI224 I set about defending the Earth from its evil photons

Mars is noticeably brighter than my last effort, now we're so close to opposition, it was almost TOO bright at ~f/25. I did stick another Barlow inline at one point to take advantage and maybe increase the image size, but I think...well, maybe I should stack one of the sequences later and see what you think?

Kit: C11 Edge HD, EQ6, ZWO ASI224MC, TV Powermate 2.5x.

Cheers,
Dunk

Edit: added 2 from last night (15/5)...seeing wasn't as good to start off, and it looks a little hazy over Acidalia. A couple of hours later the seeing had improved. I'd also rejigged my optical train for a little more focal length.

Edit2: added a shot from 16/5 with a bit more Acidalia.

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Looking good there Dunk!

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Thanks Pete! We hadn't had seeing like that for a while IMO

[CAAD9 (Adam)]

Wow!

Out of curiosity how do the differences in apreture and F ratio impact on image quality? Perhaps that is guilty of being a newb's question.

I get that first and foremost focus is the biggest improvement.

Great shooting!

[astronobob (Bob)]

They're pretty awesome Dunk, surprised a bit actually, was out lastnight aswell but not as clear/steady here, ahhh, local conditions vary everywhere,,!
Great result from capitalising on the night

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Nice Dunk
Thanks for posting.
Very Nice.

[Atmos (Colin)]

Really nice shots there

[MortonH]

Excellent, Dunk!

As predicted by Cloudfreenight, the jet stream has destroyed the seeing here and it doesn't look like improving any time soon.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Thanks all!

The jetstream seems to be lulling before picking up speed again from the south Tue/Wed. When I first started capturing last night, I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing in the live view and quickly stacked some data and thinking it wouldn't last, I quickly took a bunch more! From what I've looked at so far, pretty much all of my data from last night is like this.

@Adam, focal length is your friend when trying to zoom in on a small subject such as Mars and resolve sub-arcsecond details, aperture does indeed help bring in more light and increase the "signal", but good results can be had from small scopes if the subject is bright and the seeing is good.

It's all about the seeing!

[kkara4 (Krishan)]

Awesome Dunk - I wish i read your email in time to set the scope up instead of reading it the following morning lol. Keen to see your reprod version

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Thanks Krishan! It's good to have some decent seeing for a change

[Dennis]

Lovely series, the detail and processing is very nice on these.

Cheers

Dennis

[andyc (Andy)]

Great results Dunk! The second and fourth frames are excellent. And interesting about focal length - Mars' brightness is really helping me pick more details at long fl and short exposures - far more than I'm managing on Jupiter or saturn.

I had the pleasure of seeing Mars from Brisbane at an impromptu star party following my wife's talk at AAQ, seeing seemed really good that night (14th), made me jealous of Brissie skies!

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Thanks Dennis, Andy! Looks like our lucky run of good nights has come to an end as the clouds are drawing in today

If the cloud gods are listening, I'd appreciate at least one good clear night with good seeing each week for the next month

[PeterM]

Really, really good Dunk. Sky is pretty good here tonite.

[Rod771 (Rod)]

Jeez! They're really good Dunk! You've really nailed the colour too!

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Thanks Peter, Rod!

I did peek out the window last night and it was looking decent again, but how much data do I need on the same face of Mars Need another good night in 5-7 days time

[RobC (Rob)]

You have nailed it Dunk from both a capture and enhancement aspect

Cheers

Rob

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Thanks Rob!