Mars first try

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Had my first attempt at Mars last night. Conditions were definately not ideal as I'd not appreciated how low it would be and it was only just clearing the roof of the house. I split the colour Neximage images using RGBsplit to see if I could get a sharper final image. The blue image looks very dodgy - not sure why?

[iceman (Mike)]

Good first attempt, Peter! Mars is a difficutl target for us.

The blue channel is always the messiest - due to the atmosphere distorting the longer wavelength more than the red channel.

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Thanks Mike, is there any way of improving the blue channel either while imaging or afterwards? Wavelets seemed to make it worse if anything.

[iceman (Mike)]

No, not really. It all comes down to the seeing and the altitude of the object. The lower it is, the worse the blue channel is likely to be.

A monochrome camera with RGB filters is really the only way to help "beat the seeing", by using faster framerates, no compression, and the ability to set the capture settings for each colour channel independantly.

[John K]

That's a great first go at Mars! well done Peter. Tough object so look forward to more.

[ving (David)]

nice one peter
stacks of detail there on a tough object

[Matty P (Matt)]

Very nice first attempt, Peter! Loads of detail.

Well done.

[Ric]

Well done Pete, a good first attempt. Mars doesn't even clear my roof so I can understand your dilemma.

Cheers

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

Thanks for the encouragement team. I only wish the sky would clear up so I could have another shot at it before it shrinks away again.