Mars~Saturn Feb.

[asimov]

Various pics from the last few mornings in great seeing.

C11/DBK618

[John Hothersall]

Those are just excellent, Mars really stands out with no ringing so seeing must have been splendid as you say - lovely cloud over Elysium. Very fine banding on Saturn with Encke div too.

John.

[iceman]

Stunning results, John! Wow!

[Quark]

Superb body of work there Asi, great to see you crack it for some seeing of this quality after all of the atrocious weather you have had.

Regards
Trevor

[asimov]

Thanks guys. It's been a long time in coming that's for sure. In fact I've never experienced seeing like this since I started imaging. Watching the live feed during capturing was quite an experience, let me tell you! Hope I live long enough to see this again!

[strongmanmike]

:jawdrop:
Oooch! :scared:....Just stood on my tongue

Great stuff :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Mike

[von Tom]

Beautiful inspiring images!

[ballaratdragons]

WOW! That is your best ever Asi!!!!!!!!!

Fantastic! :clap:

Is that a cloud about 1/3rd the way up Mars in Pic 3?
Amazing.

[icytailmark]

wow fantastic images john!!!!! I need to get my DBK618 out i havent even done any successful imaging yet because of the weather. Now i know i made a great purchase in terms of camera.

[Matt Wastell]

Stunning images - WOW! Thanks for sharing these beauties!

[Paul Haese]

Great seeing makes for great images when everything is well controlled. Lovely images John. Both Mars and Saturn are stand outs. Superb work mate. :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

:) Stunners John.

[Shiraz]

yep, that sure is staggeringly good imagery - congrats. Regards Ray

[asimov]

Thanks all. Hit the nail on the head there Paul. When I was green, I had a few nights like this however I managed to stuff a few things up in my excitement.

Keeping calm & controlled & just 'do your thing' once you've learnt is mandatory in this situation. This type of seeing doesn't & won't happen regularly.

[asimov]

Another.

[asimov]

The white patch on the left limb, Ken? if so, yes it is.

[Kal]

Very nice images asimov, I'm loving the mars pics in particular!

[Poita]

Wow. Beautiful!

Could you post some single frame unprocessed images?

It is always good to see what the unprocessed image/avi looks like, so we know if our own images just need better processing, or better acquisition.

[asimov]

Thanks Kal & Peter. Sorry Peter! I'm just reading your request now. I'll have a RAW frame up soon.

[asimov]

Here you go Peter. I use 100% gain on Saturn @ F20 hence the grain/noise present. Mars I think I was running about 60% gain.

I guess you realize, that the finals have been seriously resized, judging by the RAW image sizes. Great seeing is what's needed to be able to do this. There are other factors involved too of course.

[asimov]

Oh, & if you look closely at the Mars RAW you can see the fuzz on the left limb. That's slight miscollimation. That has been sorted since.

[Poita]

Thanks so much for posting the RAW files, when one sees great final images, it is really useful to know what the raw data looks like to know if our own captures are comparable. It helps those of us just taking stills as well to know what we can expect.

[asimov]

This is in great seeing. In average seeing, most frames won't show a sharp CD like in this frame. As for Mars, it was in slightly jetted out conditions. Vibrating between 8-10/10. Still a nice frame as far as RAW images go.

[SkyViking]

Those are simply fantastic images. I'm speechless.
It must be great to have such good seeing. Enjoy it while it lasts! :)

[prokyon]

Wow, awesome! You are a master of planetary imaging.

[asimov]

Thanks again Rolf. Think the seeing is gone now. Out just now doing a bit of solar work & I'd give the seeing a 4 at best. As I said though, it comes & goes.

Ha! No I don't think so prokyon. It's mainly about that nice seeing. Thanks! And good to see another meatalhead here, lol.