It's not pretty, but it's Mars!

iceman (Mike) · #1 25-01-2010, 04:36 PM

Well this has been a long time coming… It’s been over 4 months since my last planetary image!

A combination of bad weather, bad seeing and very low motivation for astrophotography (mainly the latter) has meant I just didn’t have my telescope out for literally 4+ months.

I’m trying to force myself back into it, and with Mars almost at opposition (although still very small at 14 arcseconds and very low in the north) I figured now is as good a time as any to get the scope out and take some images again.

So here is a very ugly Mars from Friday night in typically below average seeing and with the planet under 30deg in altitude.

I didn’t really forget anything, but it did feel a bit clunkier – everything took a little longer to get going and be up and running.

But anyway, it’s a start. It’s ugly, but it’s Mars all the same. And hopefully the motivation can climb a little higher and encourage me to get the scope out again the next time it’s clear (it’s been cloudy since then

).

Thanks for looking.

Manav (Yugant) · #2 25-01-2010, 04:41 PM

No Pic

iceman (Mike) · #3 25-01-2010, 05:06 PM

Don't know where it went, but I re-attached it.

Cheers

sheeny (Al) · #4 25-01-2010, 05:16 PM

It's start I'd be happy with Mike! Not bad at all.

Al.

rat156 · #5 25-01-2010, 05:19 PM

Looks a lot better than my only effort at Mars this time around so far...

Cheers
Stuart

Quark (Trevor) · #6 25-01-2010, 05:34 PM

Good to see you back at it Mike.

Cheers
Trevor

Dennis · #7 25-01-2010, 06:48 PM

Good to see you out under the skies again Mike – don’t forget to pause, look around, experience the beauty of the night skies and enjoy these timeless moments too!

Cheers

Dennis

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #8 25-01-2010, 08:27 PM

Hey Mike, good to see some planetary image from you again... Mars is not very good for us this time around, but there's always Saturn :-)

I'll be on hols until next week but I'm looking forward to chasing the spiders out of the scope (literally) and starting again.

cheers, Bird

Clayton · #9 25-01-2010, 10:06 PM

Not too bad. It almost looks like some registration problems in the stack

But great result for one night out

davidpretorius · #10 26-01-2010, 01:14 AM

Hi, Mike

welcome to astronomy. Where did you hear about us.

Some good articles in here (written by a guy with the same first name as you) about imaging with a dob.

Good luck and come back and ask questions.

We are here to help

sheeny (Al) · #11 26-01-2010, 08:24 AM

Al.

cookie8 (Vincent) · #12 26-01-2010, 10:14 AM

Mike,Good to see you on the planetary front again. I am sure you will get much better seeing later.

iceman (Mike) · #13 26-01-2010, 11:28 AM

Thanks guys, and thanks DP. This looks like a nice place to make my second home

It felt nice to be out amongst it again but it's been cloudy since then.

Maybe later this week.

RB (Andrew) · #14 26-01-2010, 01:21 PM

It's not that bad Mike, I like it.
Good to see you doing some planetary imaging again.

Colours look great btw.

Troy · #15 26-01-2010, 03:38 PM

Nice picture mike