Mars,IR,RGB+4hr 47min animation+Saturn morning Jan 24th

[Quark]

Greeting All,

Imaged from 10:43 pm CSST through to 4:08 am CSST. I had checked the jetstream and it didn't look great for Broken Hill but it looked like it may be fairly crook conditions over the next few days so I decided to make the effort tonight.

For the first 2 hrs intermittent light cloud wafted through but then it cleared up. The seeing was fair about 5 / 10.

Captured 11 IR avi's and 1 RGB of Mars through to 3:30 am CSST then had a very tired crack at Saturn.

My Mars IR data is reasonable and the RGB came up ok as well, still waiting for some really good seeing to do justice to a RGB of Mars.

Have posted 5 of the 11 IR images along with my RGB plus my longest Mars animation to date, 11 IR images over 4 hrs 47 mins of Mars rotation.

Have also posted a Saturn RGB, the colour is a little off and I am not sure what I have done, wasn't really all that alert by the time I got to Saturn.

I apologize in advance if I have stuffed up any of the labeling on these images, if I have put it down to sleep deprivation.

Thanks for looking.
Regards
Trevor

PS, have slowed down this animation a little compared with my last effort.

[iceman]

Nice images, Trev. Great to see Saturn again too.

The animation of Mars is much better with the reduced speed.

Nice work.

[Dennis]

Lovely images of Mars and what a surprise to see Saturn! The animation is a corker – the tones and gradations of the darker regions really stand out – these can easily block up into a dark blotch. Top work Trevor! You must be a little tired eh!

Cheers

Dennis

[Quark]

Thanks Dennis, yep, looking forward to a big year of electrical storms on Saturn, sadly this morning I was just too tired to do it justice.

As you have mentioned, the temptation with the IR is to over cook it with to much processing to try and bring out more detail, I suppose that is a bit of a trap in all fields of astro imaging, and yes, I will sleep well tonight, probably tomorrow as well.




Thanks Mike, Saturn is at a really nice alt for us now and will get better each year, definitely something to look forward to. I think the alteration to the speed of the animation looks ok, still thinking about more experimentation though.

[Kevnool]

Number 2 in IR is great Trev.

Animations get better every one you do.

Cheers Kev.

[telecasterguru]

Trevor,

Nice images and animation. Good to see Saturn back in the sky.

Frank

[Clayton]

Nice work Trevor.

[Garyh]

Great animation and images! Trevor Good to see so much motion.
:thumbsup:

[tonybarry]

Hello Trevor,

Could I ask what equipment you used to obtain these stunning pictures and animations?

Regards,
Tony Barry

[Quark]

Thanks Kev, getting plenty of practice.



Thanks Frank, yes Jupiter an Mars are interesting but Saturn is my favorite.



Thanks Clayton.



Thanks Gary, I do think the animations bring it to life, sort of.



Thanks Tony, my images are captured with a highly modified 16" F 4.5 Newt mounted in my observatory on a very heavy GEM.

My mount, which I designed & built, is fitted with an Annsen Technologies dual axis drive & drive corrector from Peter Melander.

I built a Peltier cooler for my primary mirror along with a 27 point primary mirror cell and secondary mirror mount. I use a DMK 21AU04.AS CCD with an Orion manual filter wheel, Astronomik LRGB Type II filters & Astronomik IR 807+nm IR filter, I also use a JMI Moto Focus.

Depending on the target planet I use a Televue 3x Barlow or 5x Nagler Powermate. I also turned up a 30mm aluminium extension to allow me to image at between about 4 to 8x when it is added to the above.

Tony, I am very fastidious with my collimation, focus and control of primary mirror temperature. I am fortunate that where I live has a high proportion of clear nights and typically, very low levels of air and light pollution (other than the occassional dust storm) with low humidity. Also the high pressure systems that cross our continent west to east tend to pass over me which provides for many periods of good seeing each year. Another plus is the local topography is pretty flat with nothing to disrupt the laminar flow of air.

[StephenM]

Love the animation Trevor! Great stuff.

Cheers,
Stephen

[strongmanmike]

Yeh the animation is pretty cool Trevor :thumbsup:

Mike

[Troy]

Nice images Trevor, a lot of data collected there :)

[Quark]

Thanks Stephen, I seem to be getting a lot of practice at putting together planetary animations, especially of late.



Thanks Mike, I hope to have enough data in another couple of weeks to put together an animation of a complete rotation of Mars. Nice to see you drop in on this forum.



Thank Troy, yep, a lot of data, it's all on a Tb external drive that is nearly full, just about time to fire up my spare Tb drive.