First ever Mars (LRGB and animations)

[Menno555]

Finally Mars became good visible for me, it finally comes above the roofs. I never did capture Mars before, so for a first time I am really pleased with it
And learned already 1 thing: the rotation is way faster then I did expect. So, also did 2 (very) short animations: one RGB and one IR.
The image is LRGB (IR) and on purpose a bit "rough" .

2 x 30000 frames IR-Pass, best 5% stacked in AutoStakkert
3 x 30000 frames RGB, best 5% stacked in AutoStakkert

Animations made with the ancient MS GIF Animator

Bortle 8
Meade LX65 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader IR-Pass filter
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Zwo ASI385MC

Captured with SharpCap Pro
IR 10,1 ms per frame (110 fps), Gain 210, Offset /Brightness 10, White Bal (B)=95 White Bal (R)=52
RGB 6,7 ms per frame (120 fps), Gain 208, Offset/Brightness 10, White Bal (B)=95 White Bal (R)=52

Processed in Photoshop

Mars LRGB (IR)

mars_14092020.jpg (40.46 KiB) Viewed 1316 times

Mars animation RGB


Mars animation IR

[admin]

Hi Menno,

those are great images – if you are on Facebook then do share them to the SharpCap page

I was out late last night and was amazed at just how bright Mars was and how high in the sky. Happy planet hunting season!

Robin

[Menno555]

Will do Robin!
Have to rethink my Mars approach though: I did sets of 30000 frames at 120 fps and that is around 4.5 minutes per set. But in those 4.5 minutes there already is rather a lot of rotation. And that is now in 1 stack and that is not helping sharpness Think that 2 minutes (just above 10000 frames) would do a better job.
And yes, it was my first real view and it really was bright and high.

Menno

[admin]

Hi,

this isn't something I've tried myself, but can't you use WinJUPOS to de-rotate the video before stacking?

Cheers, Robin

[turfpit]

Menno

I found this https://www.thelondonastronomer.com/it- ... ry-imaging helpful for getting started with WinJupos. Although the workflow describes using LRGB filters it can be adapted to process multiple colour videos - I have used this to de-rotate and stack 10 SER videos captured with a ZWO ASI120MC. There is also information on maximum suggested video lengths for managing planet rotation.

Dave

[Menno555]

Thanks Dave, going there right now!

Menno

[oopfan]

Menno, it is remarkable how much rotation there is from the first to last frame. Did you use bin1? Seems to me that Bortle 8 isn't so bad. You do capture some pretty amazing images. Are you sure you're not Bortle 3?

Brian

[Menno555]

HI Brain.

Thanks! One capture coming up again, a narrowband one from somewhere in Cynus.
Yes, it's bin 1 but I did a two times image enlargement with processing. I did try things with bin 2 and bin 3 but that seems to do nothing other then a smaller image. A 60 second exposure with bin 1,2 or 3 does not make any difference when it comes to brighter or something like that. Maybe cause it's a color camera?
And yes, Bortle 7/8. I am smack in the middle of this, in a dark red zone.

bortle.jpg (47.77 KiB) Viewed 1264 times