My first Mars for 2009 - at a tiny 4.9" in diameter

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi all

On Tuesday morning, 23rd June 2009 I captured my first image of Mars for 2009. It’s still very early in the season, with Mars still 288 million kilometres away, subtending a tiny diameter of a 4.9" on the sky.

Mars doesn't reach opposition until late January, 2010 when it will be 14 arcseconds in diameter – a lot smaller than it was at its closest in 2003, when it grew to 25" in diameter.

No polar cap is visible, but the features of Syrtis Major and the Hellas Basin can be seen.

More here:
My first Mars for 2009

Thanks for looking.

[matt]

Good effort, Mike....considering how small Mars is at the moment.

It'll be interesting to watch the images as the planet increases in size towards Opposition.

14 arcseconds is a fairly modest showing.

[jakob]

Nice work, Mike!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

You must be feeling pretty chuffed to have captured that much detail!
Excellent work.

[Paul Haese]

Nice image Mike. At least it will be higher in the sky this apparition, and from memory it was about 16 arc seconds last time, so it will not be much smaller it might need more magnification and better seeing conditions.

[telecasterguru (Frank)]

Mike,
Great start to the Mars season.

Frank

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Gee, that's pretty damn good Mike!

Havent tried Mars visually or otherwise yet through the Dob, you've inspired me to have a look.

Thanks for posting.

Cheers

Chris

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Not too shabby at all

[Alchemy (Clive)]

nice work mike, you can see the detail when you compare it to the simulation version.

I admire the work done by the planetary guys, would have loved to do some of these myself, but i found the allure of the dark side (deep sky) just too strong, you really have to focus on just the one if you want to do it well. so the planetary fell by the wayside.

good to see someone is doing it well.

one last thing, what was the seeing like for this image.

cheers clive

[troypiggo (Troy)]

Nice work. Jee that Starry Night fellow takes some nice, sharp images

It's pretty small at the moment, but just wait til August 27 when it's as big as the moon!...

kidding of course...

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

Well done Mike. While everyone neglected this little fellow you manage to get so much out of so little.

[leinad (Dan)]

Well done Mike.

What focusing technique do you use ? I assume possibly focus controller, and a mask ?
Do you focus first on a star then image the planet, or start from start to finish on the planet?

[Jen]

Nice pic Mike

[bloodhound31]

When a Newt. really comes into it's own! I like the image Mike.

Baz.

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate your comments.

Originally Posted by matt

Good effort, Mike....considering how small Mars is at the moment.

It'll be interesting to watch the images as the planet increases in size towards Opposition.

14 arcseconds is a fairly modest showing.

Yeh I reckon. 14" is the smallest diameter we'll get before it starts growing again from next apparation. Compared to Jupiter when it gets to 50", Mars is but a blip on the screen.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Nice image Mike. At least it will be higher in the sky this apparition, and from memory it was about 16 arc seconds last time, so it will not be much smaller it might need more magnification and better seeing conditions.

Yeh I was pretty disappointed with my images last apparition so i'm looking forward to getting something better this year..

Originally Posted by Screwdriverone

Gee, that's pretty damn good Mike!

Havent tried Mars visually or otherwise yet through the Dob, you've inspired me to have a look.

Thanks for posting.

Cheers

Chris

Thanks Chris. I think it'll still be very small and difficult to observe through a telescope right now. But it's still worth giving a shot when you can check out Jupiter and Venus at the same time.

Originally Posted by Alchemy

nice work mike, you can see the detail when you compare it to the simulation version.

I admire the work done by the planetary guys, would have loved to do some of these myself, but i found the allure of the dark side (deep sky) just too strong, you really have to focus on just the one if you want to do it well. so the planetary fell by the wayside.

good to see someone is doing it well.

one last thing, what was the seeing like for this image.

cheers clive

Thanks Clive, it's a shame you gave planetary imaging away.. You had a talent for that too! But I do enjoy your Deep Space images.
The seeing was below average. I stacked less than 300 frames out 2000-3000 that i captured in each channel.

Originally Posted by troypiggo

Nice work. Jee that Starry Night fellow takes some nice, sharp images

It's pretty small at the moment, but just wait til August 27 when it's as big as the moon!...

kidding of course...

LOL all we need is the Moon to move away from the Earth a few hundred million km and they'll be the same size

Originally Posted by leinad

Well done Mike.

What focusing technique do you use ? I assume possibly focus controller, and a mask ?
Do you focus first on a star then image the planet, or start from start to finish on the planet?

I don't use a mask. I've got a motorised focuser and a hand paddle that sits on the table. I go back and forth through the focus range until I find the point where there's as little "fluttering" as possible.
I don't focus on a star first, but with Jupiter, i'll often use one of the Moons to focus.

With this image, with Mars being so low, so small and the seeing being so bad, it really was a bit of guess work with focusing. It was very difficult, because there were so few sharp frames in the live capture it was terribly difficult to know if I was focused.

It was just a best guess

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

When a Newt. really comes into it's own! I like the image Mike.

Baz.

Thanks Baz! Newts rule!