Mars 5th from tassie - as they say seeing is king

davidpretorius · #1 06-12-2005, 12:15 AM

Well, what do i say. seeing was very good tonight. Using qfocus which previews raw mode in colour as you focus and set exposures etc.

I did 17 passes at 480x at 5fps. roughly 80% gradient caught 377 out of 620 frames. So it was very good seeing (6 stars in the trap)

Temps: ambient 16.5, mirror 16.9

I am very happy with the result, my best mars.

To the guys that know mars features, what is the structure right in the middle that looks like his nose???

I will reprocess one day and i have also split into r,g,b avi's so may be able to tighten it up even more!

RB (Andrew) · #2 06-12-2005, 12:29 AM

Good on yah Dave,

It's good to see your work. I like your presentation too.
I don't know the features on Mars.

Cheers

davidpretorius · #3 06-12-2005, 12:34 AM

thanks rb,

can't wait for the tracking to start later this week!!!

maybe this was a final farewell, and if it was, it was a nice gift from whoever for my last days without tracking!

iceman (Mike) · #4 06-12-2005, 06:03 AM

Very nice Dave, well done. The feature just to the right of that is "the eye of Mars" of Solis Lacus.

I'm jealous of the seeing you get down south, the jetstream always appears to miss you!

Dennis · #5 06-12-2005, 06:55 AM

Very nice images Dave and very well presented too. Well done!

Cheers

Dennis

matt · #6 06-12-2005, 06:59 AM

Great work Davo.

Your pix just keep getting better.

Can I ask a small favour? Will you slow down and make that learning curve you're on a little shallower.. and let the rest of us hapless backyard snappers catch up!

acropolite (Phil) · #7 06-12-2005, 08:33 AM

You've come a long way Dave, nice effort; as you say the seeing was good, I put the LX out at 7 to cool, started observing at about 10:30, quit about 11:30 but left the LX out tracking M42. When I got up at 2:30am the seeing was better again, not an hint of flicker and pinpoint tight stars in the trap. Unfortunately for me by then mars had disappeared over my roofline.

h0ughy (David) · #8 06-12-2005, 08:38 AM

Nice one Dave,

I am impressed with your efforts.

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #9 06-12-2005, 10:45 AM

Great result for no tracking DP.

Bird

gbeal · #10 06-12-2005, 11:53 AM

Crackers shots Dave, and to think no tracking as well, you and Ice are really into this self abuse thing.
As you put it, Seeing is everything. (well nearly)
Gary

Dave47tuc (David) · #11 06-12-2005, 12:15 PM

Nice work daveP

The seeing for me last night was very bad

Happy to see you got better.

#12 06-12-2005, 03:55 PM

Great collection of images Dave, especially with no tracking. Well done!

regards,CS

davidpretorius · #13 06-12-2005, 05:26 PM

thanks all for your kind comments

asimov (John) · #14 06-12-2005, 11:56 PM

Well done Dave. As many have mentioned, great stuff with no tracking.

rumples riot · #15 07-12-2005, 10:01 AM

I prefer the image on the far right. Nice detail and colour. Good stuff.