Alpha centauri twinkiled oh so slightly and the diff rings on my star collimation were round and still. Tried a shorter Fl of 12.6meters instead of 19meters and Mars looked good with steady air but scudding fluffy slow cloud moving through for an hour. No technical problems for once, but moving onto Saturn the seeing fell in quality to above avg maybe. A decent night for once.
Mars GIF came out a bit wobbly, sorry.
Mars images were 1500/1542/1619hrs UT.
Saturn images were 1637/1658/1718hrs UT.
Absolutely stunning detail. So much better than what I achieved in the 2003 opposition where it was over 20" in size! The detail in your pictures is just incredible.
Questions if you don't mind... To get that FL on your scope are you working with a 2.5x and 5x stacked? How fast is the shutter speed at that long focal length?
Roger, Mars and Saturn imaged at 12,500mm according to Firecapture, I used the 5xPowermate at about 95-100mm extension from PM top to sensor giving 7.9x which is the maximum power.
I use a 350mm Newtonian so Mars is very bright with RGB gain at 2000/3300,2600/3300,3200/3300. FPS 55,53,53. (100sec per channel)
Saturn I use full gain 3300. RGB FPS 18,12,8. (80sec per channel probably too long 60 sec is better).
Superb work John. Mars looking very planet like with three dimensionals orbiter characteristics. The processing looks lovely and at that frame rate you could gather more frames in 2 minute avi's per channel without incurring any rotational blur.
Wow, it is so splendid result. I like very much your result on Mars and Saturn. Congratulation John.
rather than just the ususal broader feature that many think is the Encke.
