Mono Mars 19/4/14

[JB80]

I started with Jupiter last night but my motor focuser wasn't biting and I couldn't get a fine focus and the resulting Jupiter pics are not the best so I waited for Mars to make an appearance and set my sights on that. The focuser was still an issue so I spent a long time trying my best on a wibbly wobbly image hoping I could get close manually focusing and in the end it must of been alright because I have my best Mars so far.

Processed in AS!2 and then taken to photoshop and applied unsharp mask in small increments. Not sure if that's the best way and if anyone can point me to a better process that'd be nice.

Taken with a Skywatcher 150PL and DMK41.

[Astro_Bot]

If you haven't already, try Registax wavelets for sharpening. You don't have to stack in Registax to use it for wavelets - just select (open) the stacked image (PNG) and Registax will default to the wavelet tab.

I also have difficulties focussing, so can sympathise. I have a manual two-speed crayford on my SCT, and whilst that's great for visual, it's a right royal PITA for imaging. What's particularly hard, in typical seeing, at the image scales we use for planetary, is that even using a star to focus on, the image is so variable that I'm never sure if I'm actually at best focus or not, and that's no matter what method (e.g. FWHM) that I'm using. Even a Bahtinov mask pattern jumps around so much it's hard to tell.