Mars and Saturn Jan 2nd

[John Hothersall]

SPX350 F35.2, PGRFlea3, Astrodon filters + IR742nm. 1658 + 1705hrs UT

At last the wind relented after midnight and by 1 it was gone so set up ready but intervening cloud made a nuisance of itself and software/hardware would not work for no apparent reason - so I only got one set of data for Mars. Red filter showed high detail but flickering with blurred mostly but IR was stronger.

Had a try at Saturn but seeing deteriorated as twilight started.

[renormalised]

Not bad, John:). Looks like the seeing affected the shots.

Needs a clear, still night.

[von Tom]

Thanks for posting these John. That Mars is fantastic!
Tom

[Lester]

Yes, very nice Mars John. As we don't get much Mars, I find it a treat every 2 years. Thanks.

[John Hothersall]

Thanks guys, seeing was 6/10 but variable and blurry with ringing often but the IR really cut through it with stronger contrast. The Airy Disc showed a centre dot quite often so had high hopes as I have been working on better secondary placement for improved collimation.

When seeing is avg or there abouts Regx6 can give mosaic lines which need to be blurred out, I got 4 align points with Mars at 12.3 meters fl.

Mars is so tiny was thinking of trying 16 meters fl with barlow stacking with TVx3 and 2xCUltima. It was pretty bright so a longer fl would work but it makes it difficult to find at that length and seeing will need to be 8/10.

John.

[anthony.tony]

Nice work John -Tony

[Shiraz]

very nice images John. am also thinking of going to longer fl for mars - that high contrast edge causes difficult ringing on my system. Regards Ray

[strongmanmike]

All great shots John really but I really love the Mars shots, plenty of detail it just looks like a distant Earth-like planet I guess :question:

Mike

[naskies]

Wow, those Mars shots are really detailed. Out of curiosity, how do you find the Astronomik IR742nm filter? It obviously works well in the right hands.

[John Hothersall]

Yes Dave the IR does cut through certain types of average seeing, its less effective on the Moon I find but Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and even Venus will benefit. Some like Quark (Trevor) go longer at 807nm but you need a bigger scope to get the frames. The IR channel was 150 secs long about 25fps I think? The Flea3 is very sensitive at the Red/IR range.