Mars 3 December

[rumples riot]

Tonight I decided to test the SCT cooler. It worked really well. Ran it for 30minutes, no dust evident, the image was very nice right from the start. In other words it was an overwhelming success. These are a good buy, highly recommended. The only thing that let down the side was the seeing. It has improved tonight from when I took these images. Using the new focusor was a little tricky (I need to learn how to use the control panel), but certainly better than hand focusing. The whole package shows great promise. Only hope that I have half the skills needed to get the most out of it.

Anyway here they are. :)

[ballaratdragons]

Oooooo! Nice Paul!

The colours are certainly great. The polar region stands out more than I have seen in other pics.

Good stuff!

[RB]

Wow Paul,

These are terrific images, the colours are bold and the detail is fine.
These ones really appeal to me.

Thanks for the info too.

[matt]

Paul

Even with very average seeing and the diameter of Mars as it moves away from opposition, the 9.25 looks great!

I hate to draw comparisons but it does appear to hold the upper hand over the 10" LX200 ????

Time will tell I guess, but very encouraging:)

[asimov]

Very nice mate. You must have better seeing than I...Been out there several hours trying for mars but damned if I can get a semi-decent focus. Well done.

[davidpretorius]

i believe you have!!!

nice shots, bring on saturn and the big J.

[beren]

:) Top work , like the colour

[asimov]

Paul, correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like you really 'give it to her' with the waveletts....# 5 & 6? which is the way I do it too. You never have any grain or noise in your images, which tells me you stack a lot of frames? Just wondering how many frames you normally capture in general.....are there any rules you like to stick to?

Again, nice images.

[davidpretorius]

asi, without raw mode, i could only ever go say 10 - 20 on #5 and #6,

lately, with the raw mode, i can initially pull the #6 into the 90's. i then may pull it back after adjusting #3 - #5 to get a less agressive.

I do not know if that is raw mode, or that i am getting betting at capturing more quality images (100 at least) or better seeing?

[bird]

Nice one Paul, it always seems to take a few goes with new gear before it all works properly.

Bird

[asimov]

It seems to me, the more frames stacked the more you can sock it to her with the waveletts. I know nothing about raw mode.

[rumples riot]

Thanks Guys for the comments.

Matt, the colours seem more natural in the 9.25, I am not sure whether this scope is better than the LX200. Although, the collimation on this scope could do with a tweek or two. That would certainly raise the performance. it does have the potential to eek out some good images. Maybe I have just got better each session. My processing is better than late last year.

Davo I stayed up for Saturn, but got clouded out. The cloud bank was very thin at first and I quickly snapped off an avi, but the blue channel was over exposed and the end image was not good. In fact when I did the RGB shift blue went way north and red went way south. Looked like a 3D image. I now know where in the sky it is at 2.30am. So maybe next week it will be a little higher and easier to image. As for Jupiter, this time last year I was getting up at 4am and imaging until dawn. So in three weeks time while on holidays I will aim to get some preliminary images of Jupiter.

ASI (John?) yes I do go pretty hard on 6 and 5 wavelets and frames is the key. The smoothest images come from nights of reasonable to good seeing and at least 700 or more frames stacked. Most of my Mars images this year have been at least 300-400 frames stacked. This latest lot are over 700 frames out of 2000. This luxury does not exist for Jupiter though. 80 seconds max at 5 frames a second does not get a lot of frames. Thats why I have to go to a camera with no compression and can belt out the frames like no tomorrow. Also I am running the colour moded raw version of Toucam. This helps in getting smoother images. Frames are the key.

Anthony, yeah teething problems for sure, but one thing for sure is that the cat cooler works really well. Like you always say equilbrium is one of the keys. Glad I got the device. As for the focusor, it seems to be on too fast a setting. So I need to have a little read and play to slow it down. Thanks for your positive comments.

[asimov]

Thanks Paul, (yes it's John) Ever sinse I read a post of yours saying how you start @ #6 wavelett etc etc I've been approaching the wavelett section the same way: some of my pics I have it as high as 80 or 90 on # 6 / 40 on # 5. and most times I don't use the other 4. Like you said, depends a lot on how many frames you have stacked.

Cheers.

[asimov]

I must remember that! 80 frames @ 5 per sec. max on jupiter, no doubt because of it's high rate of rotation, correct?

EDIT: 80 secs worth I meant.

[xrekcor]

Good One Paul,

Yes have to agree, I like the Celestron SCT's over the equivilent Meade's myself.
They seem to have the slight edge optically.

regards,CS

[rumples riot]

John, yeah Jupiter's rapid rate of rotation does limit your time. Saturn can be gotten away with it, as detail in the belts is not really all that visible most of the time. I would suggest though, go to about 40 ish on 6 and work your way back through all six wavelets. The upper ones eek out fine detail. If you don't use them you run the risk of missing out on detail. However, it does relate to how many frames and focus.

Thanks Rob, like I say not sure about the optics at this stage. Time will tell. Jupiter will show me the way. At 70 odd degrees the seeing will be better than planets at 40 degrees. Everyone in the know say the 9.25 is the scope of choice, still think that the mewlon would be better still. Now it boils down to skill, seeing, cooling and camera.

[Dennis]

Wow - excellent images Paul. I tried for Mars last night and all I could make out was a featureless red mushy ball of nothing. It is very reassuring to see your results with the C9.25.

I gave up on Mars and waited until Saturn peeked up and the seeing did improve marginally.

Cheers

Dennis