Mars 16 Aug 2018

[Sebbie]

Mars in excellent seeing before transiting meridian tonight.

As usual good conditions did not last long but it's clear that the dust storm is almost over in Valles Marineris hemisphere.

Cheers,
Seb

[h0ughy]

wow what a change a few weeks makes

[foc]

A bit of a change to see a big Meade scope in action. Really excellent photo,and if that was taken in Canberra on the 16th I will have to eat my hat about seeing conditions and the jet stream. I know it was calm that night but but,,,,,!

[Sebbie]

Thanks guys, it was a very fortunate capture, first of the night. I was amazed how good the live stream looked - exceptionally steady and sharp view.

Here's a sequence of six stacks taken over 18 minutes (9:26 to 9:44 pm Canberra time). Imaged for the first half hour after midnight also (Solis Lacus area) but results were nowhere near that good.

Cheers,
Seb

[foc]

Fortune favours the prepared mind! I think your capture rates up there with recent Aus imagers better postings on CN.
Just for amusement, (I am just a casual in this business) here is what I captured that night on Mars in Canberra with my little ETX 105 at 9.51pm.

Having seen Jupiter flapping like a flag, I did a 2 minute capture of Mars at this time which did not seem all that great live and and then left off Mars until after 11pm. Perhaps I should have kept on Mars.

Were you guided by any of the astro conditions predictors? It would be really handy for me if any worked for Canberra. I am usually just looking for low winds and low jet stream and only the winds were light that night/

[Sebbie]

I cannot be bothered checking meteorological data and fully rely on the 'lucky imaging' principle, ie. shooting when it's clear for a set time window and hoping to catch atmospheric voids.. From experience they are usually very short lived (<5 minutes). Of course if bright stars are twinkling like mad I don't bother to try.

I'm located on the very edge of the city and my north west horizon overlooks paddocks that haven't been build up yet. I guess lack of heat sources minimises turbulence somewhat but agree not much can be done with high alt jetstream.

Here's a Solis Lacus pic taken in the first half hour after midnight on Friday morning. Spent more time in post processing due to poorer seeing resulting in lower contrast of albedo features. Still a fairly reasonable result here.

Cheers,
Seb

[strongmanmike]

Great detail Seb, seems to stand out in bold relief too, don't see that too often, nice!

Mike

[Camelopardalis]

Cracking images Sebbie :thumbsup:

Good to see the storm appears to be clearing.

[Sebbie]

Thanks Michael and Dunk.

Just uploaded revised version of the Lacus image (slight bumping up of wavelets in Astra Image). Seems to bring up prevailing dust inside the canyon as it rotates out of view.

[Cimitar]

That is awesome! The angle of the image makes it look like we're coming in on approach for an orbit insertion :thumbsup:

[Anth10]

Best image of Mars I’ve seen this season. Awe inspiring planetary shot. Well done.

[Retrograde]

Great images(s) Sebbie!

[Sebbie]

Thanks Evan, Anthony and Pete.

Hope to get few more nights like this while we're still above 20 arc seconds (until Sep 8).