Mars and Jet Stream

[rumples riot]

Well, campers, got my lazy but out of bed last night at 4 in the morn to do some imaging of Mars. Discovered several things.

First the Jet Stream was particularly bad this morning at 170mph, Mars was almost a blur at f25. Not to be outdone I decided to press on.

Second, the settings for Mars are different to the Gas Giants. Even with Gain at 0, 1/33 a sec and 10fps I was still getting bad flaring around the entire planet. That is even with the UV-IR Cut filter in place.

Third, it has been 3 months since I images a planet, little rusty. LOL.

Forth, Mars is harder to focus than the Gas Giants. Will sort that out soon enough.

Fifth, my Neighbours tree is really going to get in the way now. Errrgh.

So punters, never fear I will get this conquered quick smart. I have attached a sample of what I did get, with soft focus and not all that nice. Not as good as Mikes I know, but something to show at least. And; for those of you who have not seen my images before and wonder what I am raving about, I will attach an image of my best Jupiter this year.

BTW, people I am now doing bordering and Type on all my images. I like them what do you think?

Peace

Paul

[slice of heaven]

Good to see you've got a start Paul.
Something to refer back to later in the year.
You guys are up against it with the weather this time of the year. Doesnt sound easy.
The borders and type look great.

[iceman (Mike)]

It's a good start Paul, looks like it could use a little more RGB aligning, but it could be the focus that caused that.

Forth, Mars is harder to focus than the Gas Giants.

Agree 100%, and was going to comment on that when I post up my own Mars image from this morning, later on. Without the contrasty surface features of Jupiter (like a GRS or a moon) it really is hard to tell whether you've achived the best focus. To-date, my Mars images have just been by eye on teh planet.. need to start using the hartman mask on a star first again.. have been lazy lately.


Good first shot, it'll only get bigger and better!

[asimov (John)]

Nice shootin' rumples..

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Nice shootin' Paul. You're one up on me. I haven't even tried to drag my lazy but out of bed at that time. Might be time to pull an alnighter at the Astrofest. Nice Jupiter and borders. How about including your capture details in the border with the Title???

[davidpretorius]

beautiful!!!!, here is my attempt last night to get some footage, but alas seeing was not good. waited 2 hours for clouds to move on and the wind to drop. alas no good

http://www.precons.com/iis/gallery/M...2-001-mars.wmv

[astro-angel]

Awesome shots paul, i think the borders look great

[asimov (John)]

David, how come mars is wobbling so much?? Wind? You touching the tube, or what?

[asimov (John)]

Sorry rumps! That was rude of me to come into your thread & not reply! Very nice pics mate..

[rumples riot]

Not a problem John.
As for the wobbling I got something like that too last night, but that was due to the jet stream and not that bad. You might be right about vibration.

Paul, might do something about stats also.

Mike I did the auto RGB, and even played a little but I think the focus, jet stream and general atmospheric dispersion were against me this time. Stupidly thought that it would be the same as Jupiter and Saturn. Even Saturn has slightly different settings to Jupiter. See, that's arrogance for you. Yeah, just get up and do a 15minute AVI then go back to bed. How wrong I was.

Next time. hehehe.

Everyone else thanks for your imput, appreciate your comments.

[jackenau]

Once again Paul, good to see those images and I am sure you will perfect, sooner or later your images of Mars.

Personal opinion: don't like the borders as they to me appear to squish the image and detract from what you are looking at. (But that is just me) Stick with what you think is best.

Mornings aren't so cold at the moment, but then again I was still warmly stacked away.


Davo - strange shots - but effective, better than what I have not achieved. Persistance for perfection.

Ken M

[davidpretorius]

wind was a-wobbling my tube. at 6mm for the toucam, it was everywhere as you can see.

Speaking of atmospheric dispersion, I finally got to check out the Adirondack one I purchased recently on Jupiter last night. It was very low down and the jetstream was disgusting, but it removed probably 95% of the dispersion. Would be interesting to see what it would have done with Paul's Mars avi.

[beren]

Nice image , its going to be good to see how Mars is imaged the new few months.....i like the bordering too