Mars first crack.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

Last night was the first time I had had my telescope out since November which was great and I had my first look at Mars as well. I was underwhelmed at first, not so much because of the size as I was expecting it to be small but more because it was just a bright orange ball with no features.

The seeing improved during the night although it was probably still rough but I started to make out some darker patches so I though I'd have a go at imaging it anyway.

So here is my first crack at Mars, any pointers and comments are more than welcome. Keeping in mind I just bumbled my way through registax5.1 not knowing entirely the best settings.

It was through my 150PL with a X2 Barlow and SPC880/900 webcam.
Final stack size was 958 frames.
The settings using Sharpcap...
Brightness=52
Contrast=26
Saturation=-20
Gamma=0
ColorEnable=255
BacklightCompensation=0
Gain=26
Exposure=-5
Resolution=640x480
Frame Rate (fps)=15.00
Colour Space / Compression=IYUV

[cmoris (Carlos Moris)]

Think you could help me with my webcam setup?

[stardust steve (Steve)]

looks great. I may have to get me one of these web cams one of these days.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

Cheers Steve.
They are neat little cams.

Next step is to put the motor focuser back on and see if that helps any and I'll also try a X3 barlow.
I know I can get improved results it's just a matter of getting there.

@ cmoris, I'm not sure I'm the best guy to give advice as I'm only learning the ropes. But if you can maybe let us know what webcam and scope setup you have and what isn't working maybe we can point you in the right direction.