For the first time since Nov 14th the sky cleared and provided quite reasonable seeing to image Mars.
I captured data over a 1hr 43min session starting at 3:23 CSST.
All images are IR at 807+nm. This was the first time out for my new 5x Powermate which works at 7x with my setup.
I have posted an animation of 6 IR images captured over the entire session thus demonstrating the rotation of Mars over 1hr 43mins.
The seeing improved over the length of the session and this is clearly demonstrated in the animation with some very nice detail toward the end.
I have attached one of the IR images from the animation that has been resized 125%.
On the far Eastern limb, at the terminator, I think I may have captured the giant Volcano Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons should be 40 degrees longitude East of the CM in this image and I have checked with my own wall chart and also the maps on the B.A.A. Mars section website. However I await confirmation from the director.
Wonderful image Trevor and the animation is a corker.
Top stuff
Thanks Ric but I messed up with the date in the subject for the thread, it was this morning, the morning of Nov 27th. I am pretty pleased with the image though, this morning the diameter of Mars was 9.5 arc sec's and it was 146.65 million km from Earth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troy
some good detail there well done
Thanks Troy, the image scale with the 5 x Powermate in my 16" scope is very nice and my data was good enough to easily handle a resize of 125%.
Another wonderful image of the God of War – quite remarkable for the small apparent size and low altitude. You had me drooling when I first saw the thumbnail; I initially thought that the (unresolved) letters S and W might have been Phobos & Deimos!
The animation is quite lovely too – some of the frames are real corkers! How did you manage to obtain such a smooth animation with a gibbous Mars? I suspect alignment might have been a challenge with the non-circular disc?
Thanks for the view of Mars Trevor with nice detail visible.
Its good to be able to get off the header after a long week and see the latest astro splendors on here. Too tired to do any astro stuff myself, so thanks for the view.
Another wonderful image of the God of War – quite remarkable for the small apparent size and low altitude. You had me drooling when I first saw the thumbnail; I initially thought that the (unresolved) letters S and W might have been Phobos & Deimos!
The animation is quite lovely too – some of the frames are real corkers! How did you manage to obtain such a smooth animation with a gibbous Mars? I suspect alignment might have been a challenge with the non-circular disc?
Cheers
Dennis
Thanks Dennis, putting together the animation was not really to much of a hassle. Prior to making it I load my images into Photo Shop CS4 and take quite some care with cropping and then resizing the canvas so that the subject of the image is as centrally located as possible and that all the frames are the same size. Then in animation shop I align a registration mark for the Y axis and individually align every frame, then shift the registration mark and do the same for the X axis. I keep repeating this, making ever smaller adjustments until I am happy with the result.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jen
that looks cool Trevor keep em coming
Thanks Jen, appreciate your comment, a bit of positive feedback makes the early mornings worthwhile,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lester
Thanks for the view of Mars Trevor with nice detail visible.
Its good to be able to get off the header after a long week and see the latest astro splendors on here. Too tired to do any astro stuff myself, so thanks for the view.
Thanks Lester, I hope the rain hasn't been to much of a problem for you.
Nice shot and animation Trevor.
You must get some good seeing at Broken Hill.
Lately it seems to be lousy for Mars, here in the Adelaide suburbs.
Thanks Clayton, the seeing is generally quite good out here, the last couple of weeks has been the worst run with our weather that I can recall. Normally the high pressure systems that cross the continent pass this way. Lately we have had just one low trough after another, very strong winds heaps of dust and even a bit of rain. It looks like things returning to something more like the norm this week.
Another very nice shot Trevor. After you've barlowed your scope, do you still upsize the picture when processing or is it big enough already? I mean is this 1:1 or you've re-sampled up again?
Another very nice shot Trevor. After you've barlowed your scope, do you still upsize the picture when processing or is it big enough already? I mean is this 1:1 or you've re-sampled up again?
Thanks Marc,
The increase in distance from the top surface of my 5 x Powermate that my filter wheel plus the nose cone of my DMK add, means that in my optical system I get 7 x.
The data from this capture was good enough to tolerate an increase in the "Image Size" of 125%, that is 25% increase. Note this was is not the same as "Resampling".
The next time I image Mars, hopefully within the next couple of days, I will be adding a 30mm extension that I made on my lathe that will deliver very close to 8 x. I hope to produce an image scale similar to that of the image in this thread with no resize or resampling.
As I have mentioned previously I am not familiar enough with much of the detail on Mars to positively ID the smaller features. In all honesty I have never previously produced images of Mars of high enough resolution to show the detail that I can now produce.
I have been submitting my Mars data to Dr Richard McKim the director of the British Astronomical Association Mars Section and I am pretty excited right now as he has just sent back a copy of the image I posted on this thread and he has labeled the features. I am stoked to have been able to image Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our Solar System from my back yard in Broken Hill.
I have attached my original image with Richards labeling.
The increase in distance from the top surface of my 5 x Powermate that my filter wheel plus the nose cone of my DMK add, means that in my optical system I get 7 x.
So you can increase magnification by increasing the spacing? Cool. Sorry if it's a stupid question but what's the difference between a barlow and a powermate? I have a x2 GSO barlow. If I space it should I be able to get more magnification like x3 maybe?
Outstanding work Trevor. I invite you to join the yahoogroup "marsobservers". With the quality of your images, they would be greatly appreciated. And, you learn a lot about Mars along the way. But mostly its amateurs worldwide posting their images.
So you can increase magnification by increasing the spacing? Cool. Sorry if it's a stupid question but what's the difference between a barlow and a powermate? I have a x2 GSO barlow. If I space it should I be able to get more magnification like x3 maybe?
Hi Marc, I have attached a link to a primer on Barlows and Powermates. http://www.bintel.com.au/Barlows.html
I think you will find that using extension spacers will increase the power that your barlow delivers.
For imaging purposes it would already deliver more than 2 x.
Your 2 x Barlow delivers 2 x at the top surface of the Barlow. Even without using a filter wheel there would be an added distance between the surface of your CCD chip and the top surface of your 2 x Barlow which would result in more magnification.
Marc, I have attached performance graphs for Televue Barlows and Powermates, these graphs clearly demonstrate the relationship that variations in the distance between the top surface of the Barlow or Powermate have on magnification.
Note that with the 4 x Powermate this effect is considerably less as the light leaving it is on more of a parallel path than with the other Powermates or Barlows.
Outstanding work Trevor. I invite you to join the yahoogroup "marsobservers". With the quality of your images, they would be greatly appreciated. And, you learn a lot about Mars along the way. But mostly its amateurs worldwide posting their images.
Thanks very much Joel, I wasn't aware of your group.
I am really enjoying my work with Mars and will post on the marsobservers group as well.
that looks cool Trevor 
keep em coming 
