Mars aninations

[multiweb]

Here's two short Mars animation I did in IR.

12/09/2020 (http://www.astropic.net/astro/mars_anim_b.gif)

and

16/09/2020 (http://www.astropic.net/astro/mars_anim_c.gif)

Focus is not fantastic but I've sorted that out now for the next batch.

That was at 7.9m FL so~ F/37 with a Baader FFC and the ASI120MM USB2.0.

[Mickoid]

Great result Marc, plenty of detail coming through with the IR filter. What wavelength do you use? I imagine it would be quite difficult to focus on the planet, probably on a bright star first would be the way to go.

[multiweb]

Thanks Michael. :thumbsup: I try to look for features on the surface and the limb to focus but it's hard when everything is wobbly. Never tried to go to a star to focus. The fov is quite small so it can be challenging to find one. Best to do it on the planet itself IMO. High gain and frame rate is mandatory for ease of focus which I was lacking at the time.

[Dennis]

Excellent animations Marc, when the seeing peaks, the features really pop.:thumbsup:

I generally focus on a nearby star and then slew to the Moon/Planet to help with best focus.

Now that I am using @Focus3 in The SKy X Pro Camera Add On, rather than the manual method with a Bahtinov Mask, focusing has become an easier task. Not so much the initial focus, but following any focus changes as the night progresses has much improved.

I think @Focus3 uses contrast method so can focus on extended objects, such as the Moon and Planets. here is an excerpt from the doco on the SB Website.

"While you can still quickly focus using a single non-saturated star, you can now also focus on a field of stars (some of which can be saturated), the entire frame, a galaxy, nebula, or even a planet such as Jupiter or Saturn, or the Moon or Sun (with proper filters for solar imaging). You can even focus on terrestrial targets. Because of this, it is now more practical than ever to remain on a target during an imaging sequence and refocus without having to slew off to a focus star; other than the meridian flip, you can now stay on target and refocus in situ as desired."

I'm not sure if NINA's focus routine can do the same, but I think it can also focus on extended objects?

Cheers

Dennis

[multiweb]

Thanks mate. Tonight the seeing was pretty bad but I went out after the day's rain. Good transparency and I had a lot of new things to test.

I used Sharpcap instead of FireCapture. I find it's more stable and responsive. Also I really like that you can pan the ROI inside the sensor full frame area. Easier to find stuff and also handy to account for drift without having to move the mount.

I managed much higher frame rates with the native drivers and shot SER in 16bit instead of 8bit for the first time.

I also saved the camera stream diretly to an external SSD via a USB3 hub and a SAT to USB converter. No drop out and no loss of speed. So that is really handy not to save on the laptop. I just plug 250GB external SSDs as if I was using USB sticks.

Still can't focus though. This time I went to Antares, stuck the bath mask and went back to Jupiter. It made me realise too that the focus wasn't out by much at all. So focusing on a star might not be good enough for planetary. Anyway with tonight's seeing the bathinov was the only way to focus anything. Even the thin moon crescent was a washout.

So I did a fair bit tonight and learnt some more. :)

[rustigsmed]

nice work Marc,

how much time had passed from the first frame to the last?
on a side note - i also don't use firecapture due to stability issues, and use sharp cap instead for planetary.

Cheers

russ

[multiweb]

Thanks Russ. :thumbsup: I typically do 3min per frame on Mars. I collect $10k as it's quite bright. Saturn is the one I struggle with.
PS: a couple of hours rotation on the longer one. Doesn't spin very fast.

[cometcatcher]

Nice animations Marc!

[Troy]

Smooth animation Marc- what software was used to create it?

[multiweb]

Thanks Kev. :thumbsup:


Thanks Sensei. :thumbsup: I just load files into stack in PS then do a GIF animation. Just standard stuff.

[Quopaz]

Nice, picking up some good details there.

[RB]

Very cool Marc.

:thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Thanks Nick. :thumbsup:


Thanks mate. :thumbsup: