Mars this morning - Sep 27th 05

[John K]

Fourth attempt at Mars with the 12.5", the clouds finally cleared in Melbourne, somewhat better seeing conditions as well.

Only limited improvement in trying to use AstraImage, lots to learn!


http://www-us.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=46882014&size=o

[h0ughy]

nice shot there John

[davidpretorius]

flickr is having a massage!!!, mars was ace last night, best there ever was and will ever be!

i will wait for the server to finish relieving its tired muscles!

[iceman]

Nice one John, it's very close to being a fantastic image.. it's just a bit soft, either due to bad seeing or the focus was off.

You'll be doing some great images very soon!

[davidpretorius]

servers back up, great stuff, it is really cool to be able to compare a few mars photos from last night with different settings etc, different styles

[asimov]

Sweet image! Plenty of surface details showing. Well done John K.

[John K]

Thanks for the comments guys. Appreciate it.

Mike I think you are right, the image was quite soft, not 100% if it was the focusing/seeing or if it was the fact I had the gain set as low as possible (Gain was only at 10%)

My expereince thus far with the NexImage camera is that it can be quite "noisy" so like to turn the Gain down as much as I can. However, I think this may result if a far softer image? Is this the case as well with the ToU Cam?

[ving]

Oh that learning curve hey!!
well done

[davidpretorius]

Yup ving, one day John & Mike will get to produce stunning images like me and asimov have been doing last night by simply sitting watching the tv and sticking the hand out the window, snapping the moons of pluto with the trusty old box brownie! no need for a telescope for us!

yup, a case of the old bulls and the young bulls!

they will understand one day that size and detail and post processing mean nothing. Once they can produce a red dot like me and asimov, then they can call themselves astrocrapperronners!

[John K]

I have reprocessed this image. The issue with it being soft was that I did a Mediam 7 x 7 in AstraImage which was too much, 3x3 or 5x5 was better. The new image is here:

http://www-us.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=47365497&size=o

Also, I have labelled a couple of potential volcanoes??, not sure, so will I'll let the more experienced imagers review and comment on this shot:

http://www-us.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=47365498&size=m

Clear skies!
John K.

[bird]

Hey John - nice image!

You might consider trying the Alpha-trimmed mean function in Astra Image as well, it might do a little better than the median filters.

regards, Bird