Mar in morning of Dec 6th + 110min animation

[Quark]

Hi All,

Imaged Mars this morning Dec 6th in fair seeing 4 to 5 / 10.

Capture 5 IR 807+nm images that I have posted and also put into an animation that covers the rotation of Mars over a 110min period.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/MarsAnim20091205.gif

I have also attached an IR G B colour image.

Thanks for looking.
Regards
Trevor

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Trevor
Plenty of detail there - image three is great!
Keep on Marsing!!!!!

[Troy]

nice pictures Trevor
I like the colour one :thumbsup:

[bird]

Nice work Trevor, weather here also looks good for tomorrow morning.

cheers, Bird

[Clayton]

Those are rippers Trevor.:eyepop::thumbsup:
Can't wait to see some when the seeing is improved:)
Shame that Mars will only increase in size by another 4", but I guess that is 40%:rofl:

[Kevnool]

Very nice Trev.
Great detail in there.
Olympus Mons stands out clearly.
Great work.

Be out obseving next w/end.

Cheers Kev.

[Quark]

Thanks Kev, Olympus Mons isn't really visible in these images, it would be right over on the Western limb. However I reckon Tharsis is visible in them. Might have my barlowed laser by next weekend with a bit of luck.


Thanks Clayton, 4" sure doesn't sound like a lot, but I'll take it. More crucial is the extra 7 odd degrees that it will climb above the horizon, that and being able to image it without worrying about how close twilight is.



Thanks Anthony, hope it fine for you in the morning. I have been hitting the deck at 3 am CSST this last month or so and have been using a programmable 24 hr 7 day timer to fire up my Peltier at 2 am and drop out at 2:45 which has been working out quite well, but I think Mars is high enough now to get reasonable data, depending on the seeing, at least 30 min's earlier than I have been. The change in phase over the last 4 weeks has been most noticeable. We really just need some cooperating from the weather with the seeing to get some descent data.



Thanks Troy, the IR works well as the red channel, just need some more stable seeing to get rid of the edge artifact to make some good images.



Thanks Matt, I do enjoy the challenge, just have to work out how to factor in some more sleep.

[iceman]

Heaps of detail, Trev. Beautiful images.

The sharpness and colour of the RGB one still seems to be eluding you a bit but i'm sure it will come.

You're getting heaps of practise in!

[Quark]

Thanks Mike, I am getting heaps of practice as I am supplying data to Tim Livengood for the EPOXI mission, Tim wants unsharpened FIT's files but I have been doing fully processed version for IIS and the B.A.A.

My colour attempts, thus far, have always been at the end of each session after I have the data for Tim.

It seems the best way to put together a colour image at the moment is to go IR G B but that creates a bit of a problem for me as my IR filter seems to focus slightly differently to my RGB set of filters. Having to do this refocus mid stream places constraints on how much data I can capture in the time that I have for each set which is about 6 mins.

However I will sort it out, hopefully, by the time of opposition at the end of January.

[Lester]

Very nice images Trevor, thanks for the view.