MARS - there is still life! 21-Dec-05

[Robert_T]

Hi All, I've been having a dream run with weather and seeing (uh oh might have jinxed it now). Beautiful again last night, more 8/10 seeing and no cloud:zzz:

With the good seeing I pushed the image scale up with 3x barlow and extension tube ~F45 on the Mewlon 180. No resampling needed (just for u iceman ;) ).

I'm pleased with the detail - the terminator edge sharpening is a bit much. This was a fairly rough and ready process so will try and improve.

cheers,

[iceman]

That's very nice Robert! The absence of jetstream over QLD the last few days has been good for you!

I know what you mean about the terminator. The deconvolution process, while it helps sharpen the detail on the planet, also has the negative side effect of brightening one limb and cutting off the shading on the terminator, making it drop off to black in the space of 1 pixel. It's a fine balancing act.

[Robert_T]

[QUOTE=iceman]The absence of jetstream over QLD the last few days has been good for you!
QUOTE]

Thanks Mike - ahh, so that's what's behind this good seeing, I'll have to keep a keen eye on the jetstream maps under resources. Good one. Looking back it seems to just be swinging south of Brisbane.

cheers,

[videoguy]

Good work Robert.. It's interesting looking at the most recently posted images of Mars as there appears to be some substantial change in the appearance of the northern tip of Syrtis Major.

[Robert_T]

Thanks Steve, might have to check out the Mars Observers site to see what they've picked up on this - certainly I noticed a fringing along Syrtis Major in this image that hadn't been apparent to me before, but this has more detail than I'd captured previously too so wasn't sure if it's actual change in the albedo feature or not.

cheers,

[rumples riot]

Nice Robert, good definition. Pity it won't be back for a while.

[Dennis]

Great image Robert. For some reason, I just have not been able to do anything with Mars other than acquire a red blob. You have managed to take some superb images over the last few nights, of this fast shrinking God of War.

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

Great stuff Robert. Lovely image.

[Robert_T]

Thanks Dennis, I'm curious you haven't scored with Big Red given your Saturn image looks great - unless you've got some localised seeing issues that effect the early evening (say imaging over a road or tiled roofs?). Could it be an issue with settings (over exposure?) or focus on Mars that is a bit trickier than Saturn maybe. When you have Mars in the field in K3CCD what are you reading on the light meter? - I generally aim for around 150ish...

regards,

[beren]

Top work Robert :)