Mars October 19 2005

Here is a quick, end of the night shot I got of Mars on October 19th, 2005, as you can see this image of Mars has different features showing from my other images of Mars below.

This image here shows Mars as it does in the Webcam, when I am capturing the data:

Here is Mars after some zoom and crop edits:

And finally some colour and stacking edits, to try and squeeze as much detail out as possible:

Moon October 19th 2005

Here is the second set of Moon images I was able to take, the first one right below is showing exactly what I see while imaging with my webcam.

Moon October 16 2005

Here is my first attempt at the Moon with my webcam, on this date, the moon was nearly full.

They were taken with my 10" dob that does not track, so these images were constantly moving across my field of view, and the seeing was also bad, as I never let the scope cool down, the Moon looked as if it were under water.

Mars October 6th 2005

Mars October 6th, 2005 1:00am EST




Here is my first attempt at imaging Mars, actually its only my second real look at the planet with a telescope, since I did not have one in time for the 2003 opposition, and when viewing Mars at 4am in July, it was so small in my 4” that no detail could be seen except for a orange blob.

This is also my first time ever using a CCD camera to capture the images, before the CCD, I would use my Kodak Digital camera held up to the eyepiece.

The seeing and transparency on this morning of Oct 6th, 2005, was OK at best, I could see hints of very high clouds around Mars. I have found so far the best method of centering the object in the FOV of the CCD is to point at the object with the Green Laser pointer I have mounted with a remote on\off switch, I have the laser very finely tuned and buy pointing it at Mars, I am able to get the planet pretty much in the range of the camera.

Now before I go any further, I just want to state for the record since I am using a Dob to capture images, I am just really doing it for kicks, and nothing more. And therefore I know I am not going to get the results of some of the other stunning images, and I am fine with that. :)

Since my 10” Dob does not track, its amazing to see how fast Mars races across the FOV. After doing some reading on the internet, (thanks IceinSpace)I found the best method is to take several movies, convert the frames to .bmp files, take the bmp files through another program, called ppmcentre, this will take the object and centre it in each image automatically, and then drop the .bmp files in to Registax.

Here are my Results:







This is a fairly similar view to what I was able to see through the eyepieces, dark seas, and not to much of the ice caps on either end of the planet. I hope to get out again soon and spend more time at the EP and imaging to get different perspectives but the weather seems to have other plans, and it looks like its going to be cloudy for the next few days :(

According to the Mars Profiler, on this night the Magintude of Mars was around -1.8 which is pretty bright and still approx 32 days from Opposition (when Earth and Mars are closest) From what I can gather the dark banding Mare I was able to see is Mare Sirenum. The white area around the limb could be as a result of the light bending through the Atmosphere of Mars!