Changes:

- Changed the hue shining on the taller of the mounts, giving it a more golden hue (as opposed to yellowish). Upped the structure levels to make the striations more visible
- Boosted the light and contrast in the lower mounts to make them more visible
- Desaturated distant badlands, shifted hue, again to remove yellowish cast
- Removed clouds from around moon to isolate it and make it a more visible presence in the sky
- Changed white balance to remove color cast
- Added an off-center light source, fairly low, and just left of center, as that is where the light seemed to be coming from.
- Added a simple black matte.

Reckon not, ha, ha, but on a more sober side, when the Voyager Spacecraft made it;s flyby of Neptune, the scientists had to increase the exposure for the on-board cameras. Seems like even in broad daylight there wasn't enough light from the sun for the normal exposure range. Then they had to program the camera to stay centered on the planet as it moved through space during it's flyby. Now to make matters worse, the radio signal from over 3 billion miles out becomes so diluted due to the extreme distance that it's strength was less than a 3 watt light bulb! Then, to compound matters even worse they (scientists) had to retrofit their computers as they had advanced here on earth but the on-board computer was still decades old. And to think we as astrophotographers have such problems as we have, I salute the scientists at JPL and NASA.

Contacts eventually form a thin film of oxide. If the camera is OK with another lens, then you know that it is the ol'standby lens causing the problem. Check the lens on a different camera... all alphas fit. Of course you have done this with the Sony 65.

If you believe that it is a contact problem, then start the contact cleaning process simple and delicate using a bit of brown paper sack to rub the contacts. (backed with some thing to stiffen) An alternate more aggressive approach would be corcus cloth used for automotive relay contacts, usually available at auto parts stores. Truly a detective story.

Here is a sample of images that I took of the planet Mars during it's very close approach to the Earth in 2003. Mars at it's closest approach was at a distance of about 32 million miles. The white spot near the limb at the 5:00 o'clock position on the first image is the giant volcano Olympus Mons, it is one of the higest mountains in the solar system, dwarfing Mt. Everest. It is 14 miles high and 370 miles wide at it's base.
By October the planet had receeded further from the Earth and was then showing a gibbous phas.

Digital also allows us the freedom to take those shots that we may have missed with film due to is it worth the chance or do we just pass it by and hope we get another chance.
I get my fair share of ones that end up in the digital file 13 bucket, but from those I try to learn what I did wrong so its not a total waste.
When I go out with my camera I don't mind taking several hundred photos but if all I get is 25-30 is ok too, its the getting out and doing what I enjoy and hopefully improves my skills that counts the most .
Wasted time, effort and images ? I think not.
Pete