Dusty Mars

[big-blue]

Good seeing for suburban Adelaide last night (24/11) prompted me to capture some data of Mars despite its shrinking visage (now only 16" which is 75% of its apparent size at opposition 6 weeks ago).
The large dark patch on the right is Syrtis Major and the pale area between SM and the pole is a large dust storm. Good seeing lasted for my duration out there, and gave me a short but good animation as attached.

I also attach a Mars comparison between Oct 14 and Nov 17 from my files... with Mars nearly in the same rotational position (though not to scale). Considerable detail has been smeared due to November dust storms. Conversely, the Valles Marineris feature (the Grand Canyon of Mars... but far larger) is rendered far more visible due to the brighter dust.

[multiweb]

I like those comparison shots. Very neat. :thumbsup:
Gotta dig up mine see if I have something matching the same orientation. What would the dust look like in IR? Darker or brighter than the reference? I don't think I have any RGB shots of the storm.

[alpal]

Great pictures and I checked out some of your other recent posts too.
You have very high quality results.


cheers
Allan

[Saturnine]

Very good quality images, capturing the dust storm and comparison image. From the images that I've seen on http://alpo-j.sakura.ne.jp/indexE.htm the dust shows up very well in IR.
What gear did you use for your imaging by the way.

[big-blue]

Thanks Marc.! I think Jeff has answered your question in this thread re. IR better than I could. I think I am lucky to achieve the comparison I did. I keep going out there capturing the data, and while most of it is rubbish, some interesting comparisons can sometimes be made when all the ducks line up (seeing, cloud free, no IT issues, my own free time etc etc)

[big-blue]

Thanks Allan. I produce lots of rubbish too... but only I get to see that ;)

[big-blue]

Thanks Jeff.
One day I might explore IR a bit more.
My gear consists of a classic C11 with 2x barlow into a ASI290MC (colour) camera. In theory, this setup produces oversampled results. For Mars, I also use an ADC, and the added extension pushes me well into oversampling (image scale is reported by Firecap at 0.07 arcsec/pixel). However, the results appear good to my eye though maybe I could do better in theory if I could swap the 2x barlow for a 1.2x - 1.5x instead : though try to find one of those !