Mars in good conditions - 21/10/2007

iceman (Mike) · #1 22-10-2007, 07:03 AM

Hi

Conditions were good yesterday morning, with good transparency and better than average seeing (but very dewey). I was capturing some deep space objects with the ED80, with the plan to image Mars when it got higher.

I almost left it too late though, and only managed to capture a few runs before Mars went too far to the North and behind a tree from my vantage point. That'll teach me for doing deep space imaging!!

Seeing was good for a change.. Mars had certainly got a bit bigger since I last captured it in good conditions back in May when it was only 5.4".

At this CM (South is up), Sinus Meridiani (where the rover Opportuntiy is currently exploring) and Mare Erythraeum are the main darker features to the South and Niliacus Lacus is the dark patch above the NPH. Chryse is the bright region between the two.

Captured with my 12" newt on EQ6, DMK21AF04 + 5x powermate + Astronomik RGB filters. (Red channel: 30fps for 2 minutes. Green channel: 30fps for 1 minute. Blue channel: 15fps for 1 minute ).
Registax was used to stack approx 400 frames from each channel and sharpen with wavelet processing. Photoshop was used for the rest of the processing (levels, curves, channel combine).
The image on the left is RRGB, where the red channel is used as the luminance.

Thanks for looking.

gbeal · #2 22-10-2007, 07:12 AM

Crackers Mike, very nice. I haven't seen the sky for a while, let alone Mars. Send some good weather please.

h0ughy (David) · #3 22-10-2007, 07:22 AM

Mike, you have not lost your touch. Look forward to more of these over the next few weeks

sheeny (Al) · #4 22-10-2007, 07:25 AM

Top stuff, Mike! Mars is such a hard target... you've done it well! Love the detail!

Al.

[1ponders] (Paul) · #5 22-10-2007, 07:30 AM

Great start to the season Mike

joshman (Josh) · #6 22-10-2007, 08:08 AM

props mike! some damn good imaging!

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #7 22-10-2007, 08:51 AM

Hi Mike, nice images - thanks!

Bird

Lee · #8 22-10-2007, 06:45 PM

That's awesome Mike - love the colours....

Alchemy (Clive) · #9 22-10-2007, 06:53 PM

Another nice image.... it looks like planetary imaging is back on the menu

acropolite (Phil) · #10 22-10-2007, 07:14 PM

Nice effort Mike, excellent detail and colour

Dennis · #11 22-10-2007, 07:18 PM

Stunning images Mike - how on earth did you manage to pull those out of the hat so early in the season?

Cheers

Dennis

iceman (Mike) · #12 22-10-2007, 07:20 PM

It feels like it's early in the season... deja vu

matt · #13 22-10-2007, 08:25 PM

Good work, Mike.

The RRGB looks clearly better than the other image, but I'd be proud of both if they were mine.

That R (L) channel really makes a difference, eh?