Mars, IR+RGB+4hr 53min animation, morning Feb 6th

[Quark]

Hi All,

Due to the remnant of the cyclone coming down from Queensland, this was my first clear night since Jan 28th.

Imaged Mars from 10:05 pm through to 3:30 am.
For my final capture to get the CM that I thought I needed for my animation project, I had to flop my scope and as I started my 3:30 am capture my histogram dropped off as Mars descended into a nearby tree top.

Ended up with 11 IR avi's covering 4 hrs 53 mins of Mars rotation.
I have attached the best 2 of those images along with labeled comparison images. Also attached an animation of all 11 IR images for a just under 5 hr animation.

Trailed new capture settings for RGB in an attempt to solve the problem of saturating the NPC region. Reduced considerably the gain for all 3 channels, however the NPC still seems saturated and this was not enough signal to do justice to the fine detail that was in the R & G channels. Having said that I have attached this RGB as it does show rather well some cloud over Olympus Mons. Of even greater interest, it shows a bright spot right on the very edge of the NPC at the CM.

Thanks for looking.
Regards
Trevor

[CoolhandJo]

Very nice! Lovely presentation too! I don't image planets (yet), ut when I do I hope to resolve the amazing detail you have captured! Well done..

[Lester]

Top presentation yet again Trevor. Thanks for the view.

[hotspur]

WOW!,outstanding images Trevor,congratulations on such fine results.

Yes,Mars looks fantastic at the moment rising in the N.E.Unfortunatly due to cloudy rain and work commentments i have'nt seen much of it through scope.I did get a very brief chance about a week ago,I was suprised to see a fair bit of detail through my small 4 inch refractor,in fact,i would say i saw more detail than when it was closer a couple of years ago.

I am hoping to use a philps to U cam,that Dennis gave me to capture some images and do a stacking image,if it ever fines up!

cheers Chris

[Quark]

Thanks so much Dr Paul, I really do appreciate your comments.



Thanks Lester, not to much in the way of albedo shading on this side of Mars but still some detail to work with.



Thanks Chris, I am a bit ashamed to admit it, but I have yet to look at Mars through an eyepiece this apparition. Look forward to seeing your ToUcam efforts. Hope you get an opportunity before the apparent diameter of Mars decreases to much.

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Slide 2 is unreal!... and animation to boot too. :thumbsup:
I've seen some horrible dust storms pics from 1st of Feb in your area. You guys cleared out now?

[telecasterguru]

I concur. These are indeed very good.

Frank

[Quark]

Thanks Marc, yep, sure have had our share of dust recently. Every time I use my scope, as a matter of course, I use a wet mop over the floor of my dome and wet wipe all of the surfaces. Its really the only way to get rid of the dust, using a broom or the vacuum cleaner just shifts it around. Fortunately I have very good dust proof covers on my scope.

[Quark]

Thanks very much Frank, glad you like them.

[iceman]

Nice work Trevor, really good.

I think I asked before but I can't remember - are you using AstraImage to combine the images into RGB?

[Quark]

Thanks Mike, I use Astra Image to combine the FIT's files from Registax 5.

When I open my FIT's files in Astra image the NPC seems saturated. If I save from Registax 5 in TIF format my images open in Registax looking a lot less saturated.

I always save my IR images from Registax 5 as TIF's and when I do my decon processing in Astra Image the NPC is not saturated and the detail within the NPC comes out very nicely.

I know that CS4 can be used to combine my channels as TIF's but I don't know how to do that. I have looked at some Adobe tutorials on Merging but that doesn't seem to help, I must just be a bit thick.

Regards
Trevor

[iceman]

Can you send me the individual IR/R/G/B images?
As TIF or FIT I guess?

[Quark]

My colour image was just RGB not IR RGB.
Have sent the RGB FIT's.

Regards
Trevor

[Troy]

Nice pictures Trevor :thumbsup:

[iceman]

Trevor, sorry for the delay but here's my attempt at processing your RGB's.

I didn't do any additional sharpening - I was just looking at colour and combining the channels in different ways.

The top left is your original RGB image from this thread.
The top right is an RGB using your R,G,B tif's. I combined them using AstraImage and then used levels/curves only to get it looking ok.

The bottom left is an IR+RGB. Your IR image from this thread is used as the luminance, and the RGB image (my top right) is used as the colour.

The bottom right is an R+RGB. Your R channel is used as the luminance, and the RGB image (my top right) is used as the colour.

I hope that gives you some ideas?

Cheers and thanks for the chance to have a look at some planetary data again - even though it's not mine :lol:

[Ric]

Wonderful images Trevor and the animation is awesome.

Cheers

[Quark]

Thanks for your comment Troy



Thanks Mike, yes this has definitely provided some food for thought, I appreciate your input.



Thanks Ric, I am very close now to having enough data to create an animation of a complete rotation of Mars, just need a little co-operation from the weather over the next week or so.

[RobF]

Thanks for showing this great work Trevor. I too find the animations particularly entertaining and educational. I take my hat off at your tenacity capture these. It really is an "all or nothing" game I'm learning. No use losing attention halfway through a multi-hour data collection effort!

Fascinating to see the processing options between you and Mike too.

[Quark]

Thanks Rob, glad you liked the animation.
I agree, it is most interesting to look at the various processing options for Mars.

I have been putting in considerable time of late researching this subject.

Given good seeing there really is no argument as to the correct path to follow, which would be RGB. Only RGB will give a fair representation of the elements that we want to capture on Mars. That is, the albedo features, surface detail and atmospheric detail.

Whenever another channel is either synthesized or added as a luminance channel, to create a more esthetically pleasing image, it is at the expense of some other real detail.

In the RGB that I posted on this thread, there is a white spot right on the edge of the NPC at the CM. This spot is not in the red channel, so is not surface detail such as frost. It is however, bright in the G and B channels. The researchers at ALPO Mars are most interested in this spot, which may be topographic cloud associated with the Korolev crater.

In the most excellent comparison done by Mike showing IRRGB and RRGB, this white spot disappears due to the change of bias brought about by adding another R or IR layer as a luminance channel.

Here in OZ Mars is poorly placed for this apparition, which is why IR works very well and it is nice to put together a Mars colour image with nice albedo detail but I do look forward to Mars being at a higher altitude in future apparitions to get a real rip snorter RGB. Until then I must admit, the temptation to go the esthetic route is high but I really dont want to lose detail of scientific value.

[RobF]

Very interesting read Trevor. Agreed its all too easy to put aesthetics ahead of factual content. For most of us weekend happy-snappers it doesn't matter either way, but great to hear your work continues to stimulate interest in the scientific community.

R

[LGT150]

tu as eu raison d'en profiter car elles s'eloigne rapidement . Beaucoup de details .
Best regards Lucien .