I had high hopes for the seeing last night. The jet stream was supposed to be at minimum and the transparency was good. It started off very promising as there were moments when the planets image came together to reveal great detail but by the time Mars gained a decent altitude the seeing went downhill.
Just as well I did not wait too long and managed to capture some good AVIs early on.
For the first time I captured two 50sec videos for each colour and used Winjupos derotation to combine it all.
Camera was a ZWO ASI120MM on my 405 Dall-Kirkham.
That is truly amazing detail Stefan, strange how seeing deteriorates as it rises - for me above 70degrees. We are getting much more detail than in 2014.
It hits home for me because I was out at my observatory imaging some interacting galaxies on Mon night and I had my 12" Dob outside for some visual observing. The seeing wasn't too bad and when I raked the power up to 750X the view was sensational, sure it was jumping around a tad but when it would steady for moments I could see all the features picked up in your shot here, except it was up the other way. I had inexperienced visitors looking through my scope at the time too and I was pointing out the African/Indian continent with the white limb below, the polar cap at the top and the white spot at the upper right edge of the planet...and they could actually see it all and were amazed
Never heard it described like that but now I can't unsee it. :-)
I have always described Syrtis Major like this and I think others do too , When I was a public presenter at the Canberra Observatory for 10 years, I found this description helped visitors recognise the feature more easily through the 7" Starfire APO and C14, as it did on Monday night
Thanks everyone for the kind words.
Two days later I managed to capture the same CM and the changes in the cloud pattern are quite interesting.
I'm used to presenting my images upside down because that is the convention among planetary observers - it made it easier for the people down it the northern hemisphere when the records (sketches) have started a long time ago.
Mike, I haven't used any nonlinear stretching or colour boost so as long as the colour balance is correct, the visual appearance should be very similar. In this case the white Elysium cloud helped with the colour balancing too.
Mike, I haven't used any nonlinear stretching or colour boost so as long as the colour balance is correct, the visual appearance should be very similar. In this case the white Elysium cloud helped with the colour balancing too.
Beautiful work Stefan. The colour detail and presentation all looks like a planet floating in space.
I have been trying to get out myself to test my new 174MC. Thought I might try one shot colour. So I hope to be joining the ranks of you guys soon. Save me some photons.
, When I was a public presenter at the Canberra Observatory for 10 years, I found this description helped visitors recognise the feature more easily through the 7" Starfire APO and C14, as it did on Monday night 
