Mars March 10th

[John Hothersall]

SPX350 F36.3, PGRFlea3, Astrodon filters.

Seeing was very exciting in potential but never made the grade before cloud and rain came in at midnight but got 2 sets an hour apart. At times the image would stay still for several seconds before some blurry images giving a good result but could have gone so much better. The breeze also bounced things around which was irritating and involved the Recycle Bin.

Seeing is so local as Tom got the best and I was nearly there but not quite but pleased with my results.

1152hrs
1254hrs UT.

Thanks, John.

[Clayton]

A couple of nice ones there John :)

[allan gould]

Beautifully detailed images there John. I was at the eyepiece at about the same time and was amazed that I could actually use my 5mm LVW eyepiece in the 10"SCT and you have shown exactly what I saw. Thanks for such a great couple of images.
Allan

[von Tom]

John those images are the first I've seen that really convey the shifting windswept surface of Mars. And no wonder it was thought that Mars had vegetation!
Thanks for showing these :)

Tom

[RobF]

Stunning images John - you have every right to be very proud of those.

[asimov]

Great work John! Lovely crisp details! Here in Bundy it was clouded out but I did see a star during the evening at some stage to be able to tell the seeing was pretty good. Naturally I stayed up for a long time waiting for that sucker hole that never came - Sucker!:lol::rolleyes:

[Shiraz]

outstanding detail John. are these straight RGB, or did you also use some IR? Regards ray

[jjjnettie]

I love the detail!!

[strongmanmike]

Hmm? now don't stick pitchforks in my eyes now... sure the detail is there but I'm gunna buck the trend here John, only because I have seen what you can do with that 14" beast. These images look like charcoal drawings, sorry, the colour is mute and too yellow IMO. Not sure what has gone wrong here but I recon you can do better and would love to see a repro :thumbsup:

Mike
not a planetary imager soooo what would I know? :lol: :sadeyes:

[multiweb]

That's awesome John. Sharp as. :thumbsup: Don't listen to Mike, he's got his yellow googles on. :P

[strongmanmike]

Don't listen to Marc cause he..?..he..?...is French :question:

[Lester]

Outstanding detail John, thanks for the views.

[John Hothersall]

Thanks all. Ray I dont use IR as it is not as good as red although it has stronger contrast but lacks detail but is alright when seeing is avg.

Mike I have been imaging planets properly since I got here in Bris -2 years - and still struggle with colour and tend to oversharpen. When I do balanced RGB I get green dark features so have to sort that out. I know it is not quite right and needs to be softer like Trevors and I do reprocess after I have posted as I am never happy so will have another fiddle.

Regards, John.

[strongmanmike]

Cool, I look forward to the Sidonio :D...or is that only the correct term for a deep sky repro :question: :lol:

[Matt Wastell]

A touch yellow - maybe - but so much detail - great stuff!

[John Hothersall]

The right colour this time and softer processing, if only I could have done this in the beginning. I went at it too quickly.

Regards, John.

[RobF]

Well if NASA had early trouble getting the colour of Mars right (from the early Viking data as I recall?), I can't see how we can complain ;) :lol:

[icytailmark]

great work john. I hope i can take images that good someday

[strongmanmike]

Ah, now they look a bit better :thumbsup:

Mike

[h0ughy]

brilliant images there John.
Mike i dare you to do some planet imagery :)

[allan gould]

You're a bugger, Dave

[strongmanmike]

I have...back in 03 when I was a brand new CCD imager :nerd:

In fact it was Mars even...nothing like Johns though, these are single frames

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/56901005/original

and

http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/56900971/original

That's nearly 10 years ago now...I have thought about it but I get so little time as it is, I think it will be something I'd do if I ever get an observatory again :question:

Anyway, sorry John, back to your (much better) Mars

Mike

[John Hothersall]

Actually those are pretty good for back in 2003 - before I was born (as an astroimager).

John.

[Paul Haese]

That first image of the second lot is the better image. I thought the first images were too sharpened and pastel like. There are a few imagers on CN that think this look is good, one in particualar thinks because he is an artist he knows how Mars should look. Pretty funny really, but the point is that any planetary image should look like a photograph of a planet. Sometimes the data cannot handle lots of sharpening. Colour is a hard one too. When data is good the colour just falls into place. Having been at this since 2004 now I look back over my images often and still wonder which colour is correct. Trying to give an eyepiece view is probably best I suppose but colour is a personal thing really.

[h0ughy]

was that with the meade 12" Mike?

its an intersting thought Paul that the colour might change depending on the soup through which it was imaged? Does our atmosphere change the colour of the surface?

[asimov]

Colour balance looks really nice now John. Anyway, I knew it was great data & colour balance was a non issue for me at least...That's why we bother to go to great lengths to KEEP any good data safe with multiple backup's - So we can reprocess again later.

Yeah, pretty funny stuff on CN at times Paul :rofl:

[Paul Haese]

Blue extinction is certainly a factor when imaging lower down toward the horizon, whether it is a factor in how the surface is perceived that I cannot tell you.:)

[Quark]

Some very nice data for sure John. Reckon you should go with what ever is pleasing to you. I suppose it all comes down to why you do it.

I know that the groups I send my data too, will be measuring my images in WinJUPOS and so I steer clear of applying limb darkening, which will make the images look more like spheres but makes it more difficult to apply the real outline of the planet in WinJUPOS. It has become a habit for me to do this with Saturn & Jupiter in particular but being a creature of habit I apply the same logic to Mars.

This is all very subjective, regardless, this is some great data with a heap of detail in it.

Well done
Regards
Trevor