Mars 21/9/20

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Hi All.

Did some Martian imaging on Monday morning , after watching the final leg of the Tour de France . Seeing was probably Pickering 4 or 5 at best.

NG 127 Triplet, 3X ED Barlow, ZWO 290mc, EQ6, PIPP & Registax. Best 1500 of 10,000 fr @ 190 Fr/sec. Re-sized 120%.

Thanks for looking.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Looks great Jeff. Surprised you got so much details. The seeing has been horrid here lately.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Thanks Marc , yes the seeing has been terrible down here all winter and early spring. I was pleasantly surprised to get some useable images from the mornings run.
I would like to say that your Mars gif from a few days ago is top notch, with much more detail than I've achieved.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Saturnine

Thanks Marc , yes the seeing has been terrible down here all winter and early spring. I was pleasantly surprised to get some useable images from the mornings run.
I would like to say that your Mars gif from a few days ago is top notch, with much more detail than I've achieved.

Yeah but I was shooting in IR. That cuts through bad seeing a lot more. I did some color with an OSC the other night and that was so bad. I have a filter wheel now. Fitted it tonight. I want to go out and do some more but the jetstream is ~100kt. Might as well go to bed.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Yeah but I was shooting in IR. That cuts through bad seeing a lot more. I did some color with an OSC the other night and that was so bad. I have a filter wheel now. Fitted it tonight. I want to go out and do some more but the jetstream is ~100kt. Might as well go to bed.

I was aware that your images were with an IR Pass filter and what the filter is capable of with cutting through the bad seeing, plenty of examples on ALPO of Mars especially. Almost makes me want to go mono and IR,RGB but a bit late for this planet season now, not to mention it would put a dent in my pension payment.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Jeff
Very good Martian images
It’s a difficult planet to image due to its size , the low surface brightness and colour
Great job, well done !!
Martin

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by Startrek

Jeff
Very good Martian images
It’s a difficult planet to image due to its size , the low surface brightness and colour
Great job, well done !!
Martin

Thanks Martin
I think I may have to correct you , Mars has a very high surface brightness, hence why a small object in apparent size is so bright. Think of a planetary nebula of similar apparent size, like NGC 7009, the Saturn Nebula, at 20" X 15" is only mag 8 and for a planetary has a reasonably high surface brightness. That is also why it is possible to achieve high frame rates when imaging Mars, because it is so bright, looking at the planet for too long in an eyepiece with a larger aperture doesn't do your dark adaption any favours.

Cheers.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Originally Posted by Saturnine

Thanks Martin
I think I may have to correct you , Mars has a very high surface brightness, hence why a small object in apparent size is so bright. Think of a planetary nebula of similar apparent size, like NGC 7009, the Saturn Nebula, at 20" X 15" is only mag 8 and for a planetary has a reasonably high surface brightness. That is also why it is possible to achieve high frame rates when imaging Mars, because it is so bright, looking at the planet for too long in an eyepiece with a larger aperture doesn't do your dark adaption any favours.

Cheers.

Jeff
Thanks for the correction
I would have assumed that the red / orange colour of Mars would have a lower rendering index on the light spectrum than say the blues to yellows to whites

I’m probably using my commercial lighting background as a rule of thumb which is a no no . Artificial lighting behaves totally different than celestial light

Cheers

[LostInSp_ce]

Good to see another little scope in action. Well done!