Is Mars, is good! 01/08/2005

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi guys.

Mr Gary Beal once noted that the length of my introduction is an insight into how happy I am with the image.. he's mostly right, I guess.. and I'm pretty pleased with this image so keep reading

Got up in the cold this morning to image Mars again, the jetstream didn't look like it would be too bad. When I first set up, through the eyepiece Mars was a wobbling bowl of jelly so I wasn't confident.. I continued anyway..

I ensured the EQ platform was much better aligned this time, and I was able to take 11 x 180s avi's of Mars.. was nice to just sit back and watch it take frames without having to touch it in-between!

The first few avi's were a write-off as the seeing was still horrible, but after 5-10 minutes it cleared up a bit and I got some useful video. It was still only what I'd rate 5.5/10, but the resulting images are much better than my first attempt on Friday morning. So i'm happy, i've gone forward not backward

The simulation image is from "Mars Previewer II".

The images are a stack of approx 300-500 frames, out of 1800 per video.

Comments welcome.

[asimov (John)]

Very nice Mike! Well done! The 1st 2 are my fav's. Pretty amazing, considering one can't see detail like this unless the scope is of fairly big aperture, & the conditions JUSST right visually speaking.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Ahhh mate, they are crankin' stuff. Excellent!! Well done. No wonder you're pleased.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Fantastic Pics Mike; I can't believe you're getting those sort of results with a Toucam and dob. Well done....

[ving (David)]

fantasic work mike!
stoked you must be!
something for dave p. to aim for

[rumples riot]

Good work Mike, the planet is getting large and I am thinking that at f25 on my lX200 it should be very large by now.

Good definition in the image and not much grain. Keep em coming. Going to give Venus a go tonight and in the next week will have ago at Mars, depending on weather.

Good stuff Mike. Impressive.

[atalas]

Dido Mike ! they look great , and I must add very close to what you can see at the eyepiece at opposition on a good night.

Louie

[gbeal]

Hey, nice ICE, but how did I get involved in this??
I have been too lazy to even attempt what you have, congratulations.

[Mick (Michael)]

very nice Ice, you have captured some amazing detail.

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks for the nice comments, i'm pleased with the results given only my 2nd attempt at a Mars capture this year. Looking forward to it growing bigger!

the planet is getting large and I am thinking that at f25 on my lX200 it should be very large by now

For sure, i'd love that image scale, but I need a 5x powermate to reach the same focal length. Time to start saving for one.

[beren]

Mike thats wonderful work well done , i persisted for a couple of hours sat night and i got zip with my efforts apart from sighting the v shaped markings on the surface but couldnt get anything recorded. Looking forward to what your going to produce in the following months

[Robby]

Nice work Mike. It's coming round nicely...

[Squiz]

Great photos ice, can't believe you get so much detail out of an f5 dob. I have an f4.6 10" dob which just seems to be too fast for anything like that, even with a barlow. Plus the fact that i unfortunately suffer from a rather light polluted area. I can only see stars to roughly mag 4.5. Keep up the great work as It gives me the opportunity to see things that i cannot see from where i am.