Mars animation project completed.

[Quark]

Hi All,

Have finished my project to animate an entire rotation of Mars.
A day on Mars is 24 hrs 37 min's 22 sec's. I captured the data over a 34 day period on the nights and mornings of Jan 17th, 18th, 20th, 23rd, 28th, Feb 5th, 14th and 18th.

Initially I planned on capturing data every 3rd night to smooth out the changing apparent diameter from before and after opposition but due to the weather was unable to do so. This has effected the quality of the final result which I apologize for. I will do better in 2014.

This animation has 47 images in it and these 47 images represent the best 61,000 frames of the possible 117,500 frames that were captured.

I have not tallied up the hours of processing that went into this but it was considerable. I sort of feel a bit flat about the result as I had to include some images that were really not up to scratch, ex cyclone Olga has a lot to answer for.

Anyway I have attached a link to the animation which is on my website, due to the number of frames it is a large file at 941 Kb. I reduced the quality to bring it down from about 4 Mb.

http://trevsastronomy.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=8236950

Hope it is of some interest.
Regards
Trevor

[[1ponders]]

Awesome Trevor. The many faces of Mars. Amazing, thanks

[bird]

Very nicely done Trevor,

cheers, Bird

[telecasterguru]

Trevor,

I reckon that it is fantastic. Thanks for putting in the huge effort.

Frank

[iceman]

Wow that's awesome Trevor. A lot of work but well worth it!

Excellent!

[Troy]

Heaps of data there considering how slow Mars rotates
Well done :)

[Matt Wastell]

Super work Trevor!
Do not feel flat - this is an awesome project!

[multiweb]

A credit to your dedication. Huge Task! Kudos to you mate. Superb work. :thumbsup:

[Kevnool]

Totally awesome Trev thats dedication.
I bet your stoked at the result.
Cheers Kev.

[Quark]

Thanks very much Paul, "the many faces of Mars", I like that.



Thanks Bird, I reckon its time now to get stuck into Saturn.



Thanks Frank glad you enjoyed it and thanks for your comment.



Thanks Mike, it sure was a lot of work, glad the next favorable opposition is 2014, plenty of time to prepare to do a better job.



Thanks Troy, the slow rotation rate really provides the challenge. If all of the required data is not captured at the right time, either side of opposition, then the opportunity is lost for several years. There is only one chance per favorable opposition to do this due to the rate that the apparent diameter changes.



Thanks very much Matt, I also sent this to Dr Richard McKim the director of the B.A.A. Mars section. He left a very positive comment on my website and contacted me today by email saying that he is giving a lecture on Tuesday to some students at Cambridge University and that he would use my animation as part of that. If he considers it is good enough to use at Cambridge then it cannot be to bad.



Thanks so much Marc for your very kind words, I do appreciate them.



Thanks very much Kev, as I mentioned in my initial post I was a bit disappointed with the end result but I thought I would leave it to my peers to pass judgment. As I mentioned to Matt, if Richard McKim thinks it worthy enough to use at Cambridge then it must not be all that bad.

[Clayton]

A great work of epic proportions Trevor. Thanks for all that effort

[StephenM]

Wow Trevor - all that work definately paid off in my view!
Brilliant result. (The website is looking good too.)

Cheers,
Stephen

[Quark]

Thanks very much Clayton, an epic indeed but it was a challenge that I enjoyed immensely, its just a bit of a shame that some of the data I had to use was captured in pretty ordinary seeing.



Thank you very much Stephen for the positive feedback and thanks for checking out my website.

[RobF]

Don't put yourself down Trevor - that's an incredible job, and you've done well to get enough representative frames considering the weather of late. Hats off!! Original and mesmerising.

[Ric]

Wow, that's awesome Trevor.

A fantastic effort.

[Quark]

Thanks very much for your comment Ric.



Thanks very much Rob for your most generous comments.

[Garyh]

Now that`s one serious full animation!
Nice work Trev!

[malp]

A great animated Mars, well done!

[Quark]

Thanks Malcolm, kept me out of mischief for a while.



Thanks Gary, this was my first Mars apparition that I have imaged with the DMK. It has been excellent experience for the very favorable oppositions we will have in OZ over the next decade or so.

[duncan]

Very Very Well Done Trevor. A very interesting web site too.
Many Thanks for sharing .
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Lester]

Fantastic effort Trevor, one to be proud of. Thanks for the many views of Mars this opposition and the animation for me is the icing on the cake.

All the best.

[leon]

Looks pretty good to me, and I'm not even a Planet person, well done I reckon.

Leon

[Astrobserver99]

Thats a lot of effort...nicely done

[Quark]

Thanks Duncan, with this one under my belt I think I can improve on it next time and glad you found my website of interest.



Thanks Lester, it has been my pleasure.



Thanks for dropping in Leon and for your positive comment.



Yep, a lot of effort and planning but most satisfying in the end.