My best mars ever! 11th Oct

[iceman]

Hi guys.

I love my 5x powermate. And I love good seeing. This morning I got up at 1am, hopeful for good conditions as the jetstream predictions were that it would be clear for a change.

I set the scope and platform up, put an eyepiece in, and could tell immediately that the seeing was good! Without wasting another moment, in went the ToUcam and the 5x powermate.

I could see straight away that the data I was capturing was my best yet, even the raw frames were fairly crisp.

While the seeing was good, I decided to re-do the experiment I tried a few weeks back - the IR filter versus no-IR filter debate. At first the results were inconclusive, but hopefully I've proved (to myself, at least) that the IR filter is a good thing. You can see from the blue channel without the IR filter that it's all a mess around the edges, and I couldn't align it properly. It's somewhat visible in the green channel, but not as much. With the IR filter in place, they're all properly aligned. I also still have the problem of white balance without the IR filter, I just can't get what I feel is the right colour.

I took an image with the 3x as well, just for kicks. Last week I would've been very happy with that image at 3x, but now i've got the 5x there's no looking back :) I love the larger image scale, it allows you to capture finer details.

Anyway i'm very happy with these images and it's been worth the 3 hours sleep a night, but i'm hoping for lots of jetstream for the next few days to let me get some rest :) I'm still not pleased with the colour, not as reddy/brown as I think it should be, but i'll work on that one next :)

Comments welcome.

[davidpretorius]

how excited are you, i have been hanging out for these all day!

well done!


these are great.

wallpaper change in progress.

I will comment more later, once i have digested!!!!!

[matt]

Mike

They are great!

They're the sort of pix that inspire a bloke just starting out in the whole astropic caper!

It was also great to see your images taken only a couple of hours before my visual observations and compare them with the sketches I'd made.

It confirmed the surface features I was sure I'd seen.

Cheers

[davidpretorius]

"raw" images as in the raw modd for the toucam???

great sequence, really shows what each processing stage does. thanks from all the the noobies!

the bleeding in the blue i have noticed myself in mine, it seems like the blue circle is bigger, making the polar caps unrealistically large: is this right?

was there rotation in that time between filter and no filter?

[iceman]

No, all I mean is the raw frame as it's being captured - what I see on the preview screen!


Yep, but not much. They were probably taken about 30 minutes apart.

Thanks for the comments.

[ving]

great stuff mike!
you are right, your best yet :)

[h0ughy]

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: Mike the King Of Mars:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :cool:

[iceman]

lol well I wouldn't go that far h0ughy, but thanks :)

Here's a reprocessed version, trying to get a better colour balance. Fairly happy with it, for now.

[atalas]

:jawdrop: "use the force Mike use the force "


Louie :thumbsup:

[ving]

you need to insert it inot your avatar mike :)

[zipdrive]

man..they are amazing shots!!! :eyepop: :thumbsup:

all i can manage is a blob.. :ashamed:

[Daniel Beringer]

Excellent shots Mike!!! It is very interesting to see the difference between imaging with no IR and with IR filter. The Filter is certainly the way to go

[asimov]

Red blob picture taker here!

Great Mike!! Exciting stuff for us n00b blob capturers!

[davidpretorius]

Mr Mars,

do you shift the blue at all in astralimage when you recombine, or is that what you term bleeding?

Do we know why the blue bleeds and appears as bigger circle???

[gbeal]

Nice one Mike, glad you like the 5x. You will become more fussy now with your seeing. Keep at it.

[RB]

Shazbut
Mike :cool: That is magnificent.

The seeing was great last night and visually Mars looked fantastic.
Great shots and that 5x powermate really Rocks :love:


Cheers

[Striker]

Yet again...another fantastic image of Mars.....well done Mike.

I couldn't be bothered getting out of Bed at 1:00am.

It has something to do with my inner beauty...lol

[bird]

Hi Mike - well done mate, those are definitely good results. My attempts with a 5x powermate this morning didn't fare so well, glad one of us got some good data.

regards, Bird

[rumples riot]

Great shot Mike, Now for some bad news. I am going to use my 5x tonight, weather looks favourable. Look out for some shots tomorrow. Image scale will be nearly double your size, but I don't know how I will really go.

As for your shot, nice colour rendition and image scale is very good. Interesting to compare my shot from two days ago and yours. Very similar in size given that I used the 2.5x and the rotation is also very similar. Although I took mine nearly an hour earlier. Very good. BTW Jet stream is getting better rather than worse. Time to make hay while Mars shines.

Paul

[davidpretorius]

GAME ON!!!!

asimov call captain Ken, gather the troops and lets take these big boys out!!!

box browny.......here
touken.....here
dso dave......here.

if riot and ice and going to head to the showers tonight to see who's is the biggest, we might just slip under their guard and sucker punch them.

ppssssst ken, how realistic can you draw mars and how big can you make it.... just as a backup in case we turn up diddly squat????


seriously rumples, i will be very interested to see something magnified 3000 x ......wow!

[TidaLpHasE]

Great pics of Mars Mike, don't know how you do it with the 10" dob:thumbsup:

[asimov]

Umm....good luck with the weather Rumps, it's raining here at the moment...

[rumples riot]

Dave lets not get too excited. If I image at 5x this gives me a FL of 12500 and an effective magnification of 2083x assuming that the Toucam is equal to 6mm. I have heard some people say that it is equal to a 4mm. But even 2083x is very extreme. When I tried imaging Jupiter at this mag it was the nearly half the size my lap top screen and would not fit entirely in the 640x480 imaging box. So Mars will most like be about two inches across and need really good seeing to make a great shot like the guys in the States.

BTW, I will be waiting!!! Got me a really big scary knife.

[davidpretorius]

nope, we will expect nothing less than 4"!!!!!!

pssst asi and ken, i think he is on to us!!!!

he has a big knife!!!!

[asimov]

nah!! 'that ain't a knife'.....

[acropolite]

Huffy wrote.. Does that mean he used Marsking tape......:P Amazing images mike, as h0ughy said, you are the king of Mars..:thumbsup:

[gaa_ian]

Well done Mike ..
Its great to see such good images of Mars
Do you have an Iceinspace viewing of Mars planned for the opposition ?
Mars viewings are huge ! ....lots of public interest !
Great chance to promote Iceinspace !

[iceman]

I don't shift the blue channel any extra - I just use the registax RGB align "estimate" function and it does a good job. I think it is called bleeding, when the IR filter is not used and some of the colours appear to be misaligned, but i'm not sure on the correct technical explanation for it.


You're right Gary, that's the problem when you have a night of good seeing - one good image later and you'll never accept anything less from then on! :)


Thanks Paul, the image scale would've been pretty much identical, as your 2500mm FL + 2.5x powermate = 6250mm, the same as my 1250 with a 5x powermate. It's interesting to see the same face taken by different scopes in different parts of the country at the same time.


Thanks Ian, but no, i'll be at the starcamp in ballarat for the opposition. Praying for good seeing! :)

Thanks for all the comments everyone! I appreciate it.

[xrekcor]

Fantastic Mike!! :thumbsup:

What a great capture, the best I've seen in awhile :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

You'll have to submit it to AS&T

regards,CS