Mars IR + RGB images & animations. Morning Jan 19th

[Quark]

Hi All,

Hope you all don't get too bored with my Mars data as I am making a big effort over the next few weeks to capture enough hi res data to create an animation for a complete rotation of Mars at opposition.

Imaged Mars from before midnight to 2:23 am CSST. The seeing was reasonable at 5 to 6 / 10, good enough over the whole session to put together some RGB's.

The first images that I captured were with Mars at an altitude of only 19 degrees while my final capture was with Mars at approx 34 degrees, this is as high as it will get for my location this opposition.

Captured 6 IR avi's and 6 sets of R, G & B avi's. The final IR 807+nm images are stacks of the best 1,500 frames from the relevant avi while the RGB images use the best 2,000 R, G & B frames from each set.

Have posted my best RGB along with an RGB animation that uses the 6 RGB's that were captured. They cover 2 hrs of Mars rotation. The NPC in my RGB's is a little saturated.

Have also post 2 IR images beside labeled copies and a hi res IR animation containing all 6 IR images from this session, they cover just under 3 hours of Mars rotation. The dark collar within the NPC shows up quite well in these IR images.

I think this dark collar is likely the outline of an extensive sea of sand dunes that ring the NPC. They become visible as the methane ice frost that covers them in winter recedes. There is a HST images of this phenomena in one of my old Uni texts " The New Solar System" by Beatty, Petersen & Chaikin 4th Ed. The HST image was from March 1997 and shows the sand dunes, known as "Olympia Planita"

Thanks for looking, I think its time to get some sleep.
Sorry for posting so much Mars data, but, it is at opposition.
Regards
Trevor

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Trevor - I will never get bored with your efforts on Mars - never be sorry, we only get an opposition every 14 months?
Good luck with the full animation - it is looking great so far!
Are you going to save up your attempts or continue posting as you go?

[michaellxv]

lovin your work Trevor, keepem coming.:thumbsup:

[Jaicoa]

Hi Trevor, A Fine image collection you have there, Lots of details and a great prsentation. Clear Skies.
Efrain
( Jaicoa-Observatory.com )

[Quark]

Thanks Matt, I send all of my data to the B.A.A. and ALPO Mars sections so I normally post a smaller selection of those images on IIS. When I get long periods of good seeing, which is the norm for out here, I will post the animations from that particular session on IIS. In about 20 days time I will hopefully assemble a decent animation from my entire body of data based on the CM's rather than by date, for a complete rotation. Obviously matching those images in terms of resolution and colour will be a challenge.

.:thumbsup:[/QUOTE]



Good to here from you Efrain, over on the other side of the world. Out in the remote outback of Australia we tend to get a lot of clear skies, just need some cooperation from the jetstream.

[Quark]

Thanks Michael, my only problem is finding time to sleep somewhere between the imaging and the processing. I spend many more hours processing than imaging.

[multiweb]

As per usual awesome! :thumbsup:

[michaellxv]

No pressure. But you did ask if we were getting bored with your images. The answer to that is a big no.

But do make sure you get some sleep now and then.

[multiweb]

Yep +1 ! Always looking forward for my Mars morning fix in this thread. Keep'em coming. :thumbsup:

[Ric]

Wonderful stuff Trevor.

The animations are fantastic, dont stop posting them.

Cheers

[iceman]

Nice work Trevor, a beautiful series there.

Love the animations, the last one is great.

[spacezebra]

Hi Trevor

Is there anything that you cannot image - this is brilliant!

Cheers Petra d.

[Quark]

Thanks Marc, I am getting plenty of practice, we get a lot of clear nights out this way.



Glad you are enjoying my work, I certainly enjoy capturing it. Its funny really, while I am down in my observatory capturing data, if the seeing is reasonable I get so involved I lose track of time. It is always the next day when I am trying to process the data that It gets very hard to maintain concentration.



Thanks Marc, have been processing all day and am about to post another set of images.



Thanks very much Ric for your comment.



Thanks Mike, I like looking at planetary images but I think animations provide many with the realization that these really are worlds in their own right, out there hurtling through space in their orbits around the Sun.



Thanks for the kind words Petra but there are many others that post on IIS that are far more versatile with their imaging than I.

[Doodles23]

Wow! To get that many animation frames you have to give up a lot of sleep! I would do the same but nights that stay clear in Miami are rare indeed. We average about 3 doable nights in January. Excellent still frames as well.

[Quark]

Thanks Dave, it must be frustrating for you to have so few clear nights, especially with Mars at higher altitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is a bit the opposite from my observing site, I have many clear nights but with Mars reaching only about 34 degrees max alt. I really want to optimize the amount of data I can record close to opposition but all of the hours that I put in do catch up with me. If you were to ask my wife she would probably say that I was fairly fuzzy through the day, not much of an attention span.

Dave, I send all of my Mars data to the director of the B.A.A. Mars section and to his counterpart at the ALPO Mars section. I am pretty sure that our other hi res planetary imagers in OZ do likewise. That data really only gets into the public realm when the B.A.A. or ALPO publish reports from time to time. There is also a Mars observers group that a lot of people seem to contribute to and I also contributed some data but I much prefer the feed back that I get from the B.A.A. and ALPO Mars, I have found their comment of more value.