Mars & Saturn, morning of Feb 24th.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Hi All,

After checking the animated WZ satellite image and the GFS jetstream chart it looked like I may get some reasonable seeing in the early hours of Feb 24th.

The best seeing I have experienced out here always co-incided with the passage of a High pressure system inland passing more or less overhead.

Through this last summer the Highs have tracked across the continent fairly low and not inland so some nights the seeing threatens to be good but doesn't quite get there, such was my experience this morning.

Have attached an RGB, IRGB and IR image of Mars.
Of interest is a white wisp or streak coming off of the Mare Acidalium region which is the large dark region above the NPC, this white streak in both RGB and IRGB seems connected to the NPC but in IR, there is a definite white spot that is disconnected from the NPC in the same position.

The object of this imaging session was really to get back into my routine of imaging Saturn, looking for storm activity. This is best done in the R channel as a deeper image can be made without the problem of the time constraints in capturing RGB data. I normally allow myself 3 min's to capture my RGB's, for when there is fairly bright storm structure present but when I am fishing around trying to hunt down new structure I capture the R channel for the full 3 mins's.

I have attached 1 RGB, the R and G channels were not bad but the B channel was a shocker. Have also attached a 3 min R channel, as I said the seeing threatened to be good but just didn't make it. Roll on winter, thats when the seeing out here really cooks.

Thanks for looking,
Regards
Trevor

[duncan]

Hi Trevor,
Love the shots of Mars. Heaps of detail in there.
Nice shots all over.
Cheers, Duncan

[Clayton]

Nice work, on both Trevor. The other bonus with winter is more dark hours

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Well done Trev, another good set of images there. The seeing last night for Mars looked ok, but clouds rolled in and when they cleared for Saturn it was pertty bad all round.

At the moment I'm experimenting with capture timings of 120/90/90 for saturn (RGB), this seems to give a good result. The smaller size of saturns disk as seen from earth means that there is about 2x the time for capture compared to Jupiter before you get an equivalent amount of blur.

cheers, Bird

[Troy]

Good images there Trevor keep at it

[Quark (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by duncan

Hi Trevor,
Love the shots of Mars. Heaps of detail in there.
Nice shots all over.
Cheers, Duncan

Thanks Duncan, Mars is moving away but should still be a reasonable imaging target for a while yet.

Originally Posted by Clayton

Nice work, on both Trevor. The other bonus with winter is more dark hours

Thanks Clayton, yes, looking forward to be out imaging by 7 pm or so.

Originally Posted by bird

Well done Trev, another good set of images there. The seeing last night for Mars looked ok, but clouds rolled in and when they cleared for Saturn it was pretty bad all round.

At the moment I'm experimenting with capture timings of 120/90/90 for saturn (RGB), this seems to give a good result. The smaller size of saturns disk as seen from earth means that there is about 2x the time for capture compared to Jupiter before you get an equivalent amount of blur.

cheers, Bird

Thanks Bird, that is an interesting timing routine for RGB. I have been using 60/60/60. Considering how dominant the B channel tends to be, the extra capture time for the R channel seems worth a try.

It certainly hasn't had any sort of detrimental effect on the look of your latest images, which are outstanding.

At the moment, for Saturn, I am using my 30mm extension with the 3 x Nagler Barlow but I am thinking about doing away with the extension for a brighter live image and fuller histo , especially for the B channel.

Over the next week or so I intend doing some intensive work on Saturn, weather permitting, to try and compensate for the overall drop off in luminosity due to the rings being so far closed. I'll give your idea of extending the capture time a go. Even factoring in the time it takes to rotate a manual filter wheel I should be able to extend my time a bit.

Originally Posted by Troy

Good images there Trevor keep at it

Thanks Troy, onward and upward. It's pretty much well a continuous learning experience.