Mars, 1:30am October 6th
Oct 8, 2020 01:23:40 #
northcoast42
Loc: Puget Sound, Washington
My best image of Mars to date. I really wanted to catch it at the exact time it would be closest to Earth but that was at 7am and Mars would be lost to the day but the night was clear and calm and I could not have asked for better imaging. Although still 5 1/2 hours away from its closest point, by this time Mars was closing the distance so gradually that even at 1:30am it was still "only" 38.569 million miles away. It won't get this close again until 2035.
For this image:
12" Meade LX850
Powermate 4x image amplifier
ZWO ADC
ASI 224MC video camera
laptop running Firecapture software
The image is the result of a 2,000 frame stack from an 11,000 frame video sequence. Cropped and debayered in Pipp, aligned and stacked in Autostakkert3, wavelet processed in Registax6 and because I close cropped it in Pipp, the final step was to put it back in a wide field black background in PhotoshopElements.
For this image:
12" Meade LX850
Powermate 4x image amplifier
ZWO ADC
ASI 224MC video camera
laptop running Firecapture software
The image is the result of a 2,000 frame stack from an 11,000 frame video sequence. Cropped and debayered in Pipp, aligned and stacked in Autostakkert3, wavelet processed in Registax6 and because I close cropped it in Pipp, the final step was to put it back in a wide field black background in PhotoshopElements.
Oct 8, 2020 05:27:10 #
Oct 8, 2020 10:47:36 #
Oct 8, 2020 12:23:49 #
Oct 8, 2020 17:44:29 #
Oct 8, 2020 17:53:15 #
Ballard
Loc: Grass Valley, California
Great shot. I took some images last night but the seeing was really bad so the image detail wasn't that good.
Oct 8, 2020 18:41:51 #
northcoast42
Loc: Puget Sound, Washington
Ballard wrote:
Great shot. I took some images last night but the seeing was really bad so the image detail wasn't that good.
Thanks. I can empathize with your poor seeing conditions. We've been fortunate to have avoided the worst of the wildfire smoke for the most part this year. Had about a 10 day stretch where it got so bad we had the worst air in the country but thankfully that didn't last. We were blessed with an exceptionally clear and calm night last Monday. Everything just came together. That doesn't happen often. This was the final shot in a two month project. I'm compiling all my images since early August. Hopefully the end will justify the means
Oct 8, 2020 18:47:49 #
northcoast42
Loc: Puget Sound, Washington
tramsey wrote:
Absolutely breath taking Belongs on your wall with all the rest
Thanks! I'm almost done. I'm compiling all my Mars images since early August to produce one composite. Hoping it turns out. It's been a 2 month project I've been waiting to do since the last Mars opposition in 2018. Back then, even though Mars was several million miles closer, it was over 25 degrees lower towards the southern horizon and was covered by a planet wide dust storm making it virtually impossible to capture images with any detail. Happy to say, it's been a different story this year.
Oct 8, 2020 20:05:05 #
Nice detail and your polar caps are white.
Glad to see you got out from under all that smoke.
Stay safe...
Glad to see you got out from under all that smoke.
Stay safe...
Oct 8, 2020 21:43:36 #
Nice capture, I’m hoping the smoke and the clouds will cooperate to try this out too.
Oct 9, 2020 10:07:15 #
Really amazing and I'm impressed with all the work this required. My partner is an advanced amateur astronomer with a C-8 and C-14 so I can relate to all your efforts. Well done!
Oct 9, 2020 10:21:34 #
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