Here's my attempt at Mars. Be gentle; this is my first attempt to image the Red Planet, and at least I got the color approximately right. The image is an animated GIF. The whole series covers about 3 hours worth of observation in 22 frames. I was guiding on a star near Mars throughout this session using the PicGoto Simplificado and my DSI Ic guide camera; the images were 15 fps video at 800x600 resolution taken with a Logitech c270 HD webcam. The loop begins in darker red (I was using longer exposures) and ends in a paler color as I exposed less. I'm not sure which I like better. I had a devil of a time trying to figure out what I was looking at, but thanks to WinJupos I believe the North Polar Cap is about 35° counterclockwise from straight up vertical. If so, Arcadia and Utopia account for the dark markings just below the polar cap and the dark stuff to the south is Mare Sirenum and Mare Cimmerium. Amazonis is in the center, which means at the beginning of the loop I’m looking down on Olympus Mons (which of course is not distinguishable in this poor set of images), but it’s still cool to think about. Some clouds are visible in the atmosphere if you look closely and use a little imagination.
Date: 7-8 Apr 2014
Subject: Mars
Scope: AT8IN + Meade 3x Barlow (f/12, 2400 mm)
Filter: None
Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)
Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.2.2 (Win 7 ASCOM)
Camera: Logitech c270 HD
Acquisition: SharpCap 2.1.915.0
Exposure: 480 sec, 15 fps AVI, series over about 3 hours
Stacking: PIPP quality selection, Registax 6, 60 best frames
Processing: Registax 6 wavelets (“Full unlinked progressive”), RGB align, fiddle with contrast to optimize image. CS6 combine into animated GIF.
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